Proposed bill could keep public from seeing police dashboard and body camera video

Wednesday, a senate committee heard a proposed bill that would make body camera and dashboard camera video footage closed records.

And in order to access the footage, a person would have to go through the courts.

Opponents that spoke at the hearing said the bill would reduce transparency to the public and that it’s too vague.

“At a time when many police departments, including the Columbia Police Department, are rebuilding public trust, we believe it’s a mistake to remove this tool of accountability from public access,” Missouri Press Association President Jim Robertson said.

State Rep. Galen Higdon, (R)-St. Joseph, who proposed the bill, has served on the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department for 30 years. He said right now, if a police department chooses not to release video footage to the public, there is no law in place where you can sue the department to access that video. He said the bill would also protect witnesses or informants that want to keep their identity confidential.

“And if those are put out to the general public, that could be devastating to those individuals,” Rep. Higdon said. “So I want a court to take a look and say these are the segments that pertain to the complaint you’re making and this is pertinent to what you want to see.”

But opponents said the video footage should stay public record, like dashboard camera video is now where the public can request and get the video after the investigation is over.

“Placing the decision in the court about whether there should be public access puts a hurdle in front of citizens to get access to that evidence and would make it onerous for everyone,” Robertson said.

The proposed bill would also ban the state of Missouri from requiring all police departments to have body cameras. He said that is because some departments cannot afford them.

“If the state’s gonna say that you will put cameras on your officers, then the state needs to buy them and distribute them out.”

Opponents said body cameras are necessary to show what really happened in incidents among law enforcement and the public.

“If the State of Missouri feels that body cameras are necessary for police transparency, that shouldn’t be disallowed,” Sarah Rossi with the ACLU of Missouri said.

The proposed bill passed the state house last month with a vote of 127 to 14.