You may soon have to pay hundreds of dollars to view police body camera footage.
This week, Ohio lawmakers passed legislation allowing police departments to charge up to $75 for each hour of video released to the person who requested it. Fees would be capped at $750.
The fee was included in an amendment to the state’s sunshine laws, which was quietly introduced and passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature early Thursday.
The amendment has some people concerned, including Sean Vicente of the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office.
“To put that barrier between a citizen and its government is a real problem and it’s really going to hurt people who are not just poor, but working class and middle class,” Vicente told reporters.
Vicente says he doesn’t understand why the bill exists.
State Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, described the bill as a “solid way” to approach a “expensive, labor-intensive process.”
Vicente claims that argument does not make sense.
“This footage is already prepared and provided to either Public Defenders or defense counsel on a very routine basis,” Vicente told the court. “So, to actually charge a taxpayer for that footage, is in some ways double-dipping.”
West Chester police determined in 2021 that two of its officers violated department policy when they stopped and questioned 60-year-old Eric Lindsay, who is black.
The officers were looking for a shoplifting suspect, described as a white man in his thirties.
“The body cam footage, particularly in our case, and in so many other cases, gives clarity of perspective and confirms or refutes either side’s version of what happened,” Fanon Rucker, a civil rights attorney, wrote.
Rucker represented Lindsay in a lawsuit against the West Chester Police Department, the two officers, and Meijer, the store where the incident occurred.
Rucker is concerned about what the new law will mean for future cases like Lindsay’s.
“In our case, it was absolutely essential, I don’t think there would have been a claim to be had legitimately without it,” Rucker told the jury.
WCPO 9 contacted multiple local law enforcement agencies to discuss the amendment. They all declined to comment.
The bill is now on Governor Mike DeWine’s desk to be signed or vetoed.
