Legislature May Punt Body Camera Guidelines To Next Year
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Despite body cameras' growing use by police and concerns about how to handle sensitive footage, a top House lawmaker said Wednesday he plans to hold off on passing any restrictions this year.
Rep. Tony Cornish, chairman of the House's public safety committee, told The Associated Press he may instead push for a study and perhaps tackle the issue again in 2016.
"With so many issues to decide ... I'm not really inclined to attack an issue like this within such a short time," the Vernon Center Republican said.
Unrest since the police shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri last summer has spurred a rush to equip police officers with body cameras. They're already in use in Duluth, Burnsville and Gilbert, with a pilot program in Minneapolis and one not far behind in St. Paul.
Minnesota lawmakers entered the legislative session eager to set ground rules. But they're confronted by issues like how long to keep footage, the costs of storage and whether access should be mostly restricted to police departments or widely available to the public.
Cornish, a former police chief himself, had originally pushed to make footage largely private, as favored by police. So did Sen. Ron Latz, a St. Louis Park Democrat behind body camera legislation in the Senate.
Latz said Wednesday he was disappointed with Cornish's plan to abandon a bill this year and said he still planned to pursue passing guidelines in the Senate.
"I think the issue is important enough that it should be addressed this year," he said. "I'm still willing to try."
If delayed, it would be just the latest example of lawmakers struggling to catch up with police surveillance technology due in part to a wide gulf between law enforcement and open government advocates. Three years on, the Legislature is still struggling to pass rules governing automated license plate readers on police squad cars.
In the case of body cameras, police representatives say public footage could release a wave of sensitive footage and prompt frivolous complaints against officers. Open government advocates have argued making them private would neuter body cameras' crucial function of boosting police transparency.
A delay in passing a bill would offer some comfort to those advocates. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota still worries that, without rules from the Legislature, officers could turn body cameras on and off at their own discretion.
"I think if it looks too complicated to pass something this session, we would rather see it kept default public," said Ben Feist, ACLU-MN's legislative director.
Even if the Legislature doesn't pass a wide slate of regulations this year, Dennis Flaherty of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said law enforcement will encourage lawmakers to immediately make footage mostly private — available only to officers and the subjects captured in videos.
"You don't want to leave this public," Flaherty said. "It could really hurt innocent people."
Cornish and other lawmakers said they were troubled by that prospect. But weighed against rushing to pass legislation, Cornish said he'd rather create a task force or commission — comprised of law enforcement representatives, privacy and open governments advocates and county prosecutors — and try again next year.
Rep. John Lesch, a St. Paul Democrat, said he understood the reserve but sounded a note of caution.
"Until we classify it, it's the Wild West," he said. "There will be problems over the course of the next year. Guaranteed."
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