Ohio families and victims of police misconduct sound alarm on higher fees for body cam footage
Family members of people shot by police and their lawyers are raising the alarm about a recent law signed by Gov. Mike DeWine allowing police to charge up to $750, or $75 an hour, for police body cam footage.
Eric Lindsay of West Chester and the families of Andre Hill, of Columbus, Jazmir Tucker, of Akron, and Colby Ross, of Dayton, said at a Thursday press conference that the law will have a chilling effect on people trying to hold police accountable. Lindsay alleged he was racially profiled by police in 2021, while Hill, Tucker and Ross were all killed by police between 2020 and 2024.
Hill’s sister, Shawna Barnett, said allowing police to charge more money for videos like body cam footage is a step backward in transparency and accountability.
“It was an invaluable thing in Andre’s case. Had that footage not been there, it would have been a whole different scenario, because it could have been (Coy’s) word against ours,” Barnett said.
Hill was shot and killed by former Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy in 2020. Columbus City Council passed a law after Hill’s death requiring police officers to turn on their body-worn cameras and render first aid after a use of force incident.
Coy was convicted of murder in November and is awaiting sentencing in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Barnett said she is also concerned about the cost burden on lower-income communities, where she said many cases of police misconduct and fatal shootings happen.
“(These communities) are using this body cam footage to bring about justice and…to show, to highlight the unfairness that these communities are getting. These are not happening in affluent neighborhoods,” Barnett said.
Attorneys Robert Gresham, of Dayton, and Fanon Rucker, of Cincinnati, joined the press conference with Lindsay, Barnett and the other families. Gresham and Rucker spoke out against the law, but didn’t say whether they would take legal action.
“The law was hastily drawn in. It was hastily signed. And for individuals who seek public information pursuant to a public law that was all about transparency and access, we believe that is a travesty and it was wrong,” Rucker said.
DeWine said he is trying to balance the needs of police agencies, especially small departments, that have been inundated with requests for video with the public’s need for the video. The governor did leave the door open to change the law should unforeseen consequences come about.
The fee was included in an amendment to the state’s sunshine laws that was quietly introduced and passed after midnight Thursday by the GOP-controlled legislature.
First Amendment and government transparency advocates said they were blindsided by the measure, which would give state and local law enforcement agencies the option to charge people for copies of records that most departments now provide for free or little cost.
WOSU contacted multiple police departments in the Columbus area, including the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Columbus Division of Police, Ohio State Highway Patrol and Whitehall Police Department. All of the departments said they are still deciding if they will change existing policies and start charging more money for these public records.
Rucker and Gresham said they have not yet heard of one of the hundreds of police departments in the state who has made a decision on the measure.
Gresham questioned the governor’s reasoning for signing the law.
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