Legislation regulating the use of police body cameras continues to flounder in the state Senate, despite the support of open government advocates and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.
In an effort to advocate for the passage of SB-50, WNA members are encouraged to remind readers why such legislation is so important.
In 2018, a proposed bill, which would have required individuals recorded in certain locations to approve the release of footage to the public, drew concerns from open records advocates across the state. After the legislation stalled in the Senate, a Legislative Study Committee was formed in order to study the issues and propose legislation on various aspects of police body camera policy.
The resulting bill, SB-50, was approved by nine of the 10 members of the committee that produced it. In February 2019, it received unanimous support from the bipartisan Joint Legislative Council, and it was unanimously approved in September by the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. Yet, the bill has not made it to the Senate floor.
Retention policy
In general, departments would be required to retain all body camera footage for 120 days.
In certain cases, including footage of deaths, injuries, arrests, searches and the use of force, data would have to be retained until the investigation or case is resolved.
Open records laws
Officer-involved shootings around the country have spurred a national push to force police to wear body cameras. While SB-50 does not require police to use body cameras, it does make footage captured by such cameras subject to the state’s open records law.
The bill does provide privacy exemptions for footage that captures minors, victims of sensitive or violent crimes or individuals with a reasonable expectation of privacy. In such cases, SB-50 would require the footage to remain sealed unless the public interest in allowing access outweighed the policy right for privacy. In these cases, the protected individual’s face and other identifying aspects of the recording may be redacted using pixelization or another method of redaction.
Balancing test
The proposed legislation maintains Wisconsin’s current presumption of the public’s right to access records. By instructing records custodians to favor openness, but consider statutory exceptions related to minors, victims and those with the expectation of privacy, SB-50 provides criteria for applying the balancing test. It also directs custodians to use redaction where necessary to allow for a video to be released.
In addition to setting standards for record retention and release, SB-50 mandates all law enforcement officers who wear body cams, as well as employees who use, maintain, store or release body cam data, be trained on applicable provisions of the law.
Bill analysis
SB-50 was drafted by a study committee made up of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, open record advocates, police officials and media members. WNA legal counsel James Friedman was among those who represented the interests of the media.
Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, which represents rank-and-file officers across the state, stated in September that the certainty body cameras provide outweighs the technology limitations and costs. He said the SB-50 provides clearer uniform guidelines that may encourage more Wisconsin departments to use cameras.
“The heightened degree of accountability that (cameras) can present protects the public and officers alike,” Palmer said.
If passed into law, SB-50 would provide law enforcement with the guidance it seeks, protect the public’s right to know, and validate the legislative study process.
