Body cams require a change in disclosure

I wish to address the issue of police worn body cameras and excessive public record requests. Current law requires that all video recorded by police be open to public disclosure rules. This is an incredibly bad idea.

First of all, why should citizens have their private lives laid out for all to see just because they needed police intervention? What societal good is achieved by allowing everyone to become a fly on the wall of someone else’s life?

Just look at 911 calls which are also considered public record; have you ever heard one of these presented through the media that was anything other than voyeuristic entertainment rather than for public good? Furthermore, almost all police interaction with the public is based on probable cause, and probable cause should not rise to the level of public record. Privacy is more important than TMZ titillation.

However, more significant than the privacy issue is the one of having to fulfill public record requests. Anyone upset with a city or county could bring the jurisdiction to its knees by filing excessive public records requests for cop cam videos. Thousands of hours of video can be recorded in a week, and having to redact all this information before it could be released could require twice as much time as it took to gather it.

The Legislature needs to recognize this impending doom and get ahead of the curve. Allowing free, unfettered access to video from police worn body cameras is an incredibly bad idea.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Body cams require a change in disclosure."