Posted on 12/21/2016 5:29:23 AM PST by tekrat
The ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court says that the police have the right to withhold body camera video for a reasonable amount of time for examination. Law enforcement also have a reasonable right to redact parts of the video for release.
Opinion
I understand an examination and cooling off period for up to 7 days. But the only redaction I can accept is the blurring of witnesses faces or censoring the audio of a witness so that they're put into immediate danger. Anything else is white washing the matter. We don't need censorship. We should see the horror of the crime to form a proper opinion. Also I think that if a media agency uses the video they have to sign an agree that they will show the full video with no further alterations. That way people don't get a one sided view. This kind or editing by the media ia what really created fake news.
Based on a article from: The Columbus Dispatch - Published 12/21/2016 by Randy Ludlow
(Excerpt) Read more at exilenewsservice.com ...
That will certainly build confidence in the local police < / sarcasm>
I could not agree more with Mr. Kosch.
I also agree that the police having 7 days to review blood and guts type video is reasonable but it is simultaneously worrisome because police in this country have a flimsy record of integrity regarding such matters.
ANY redaction should be approved by a judge or special magistrate, not the cops.
While on the surface making all police records public seems like a good idea for the sake of transparency, I have been a law enforcement officer myself and my father was the sheriff of a local county.
While many public records requests are legitimate and pertinent to the requester, there is a seamy underbelly of professional agitators who submit endless requests for random records in hopes of finding lawsuit material.
It’s not unusual for Public Records Requests to come in from an out-of-county requester for the entire month of body camera footage and all case files.
One way departments have tried to stem the flow of frivolous PRRs is to apply a per page or per video segment fee, but for somebody who has scored a settlement or lawsuit, money is no object, so all the county can do is continue to add administrative staff whose only function it is to respond to PRRs.
In one local county, records personnel outnumbered actual deputies 2-1 as a result, and were still understaffed to meet the demand.
There has to be a better way.
Put it all online, streaming.
A couple of my friends have programs on their phones that upload video as it is recorded, so even if someone should snatch and/or smash their phone the video cannot be destroyed.
Have one person redact names and then scan, upload to a website.
Should be done with *ALL* government paperwork that isn’t actually classified for intelligence purposes.
Outside of the names of secret agents and actual technology involved in covert military operations everybody should be able to find out ANYTHING anyone or anything paid for by taxpayer dollars does.
So, we need TORT reform is what you’re saying? ;)
I def. see no issue of public police force = public information. Hell, I say post a copy WITH the blurs online for ALL to see (the originals should *never* be tampered with/lost/erase) as they should be held to a higher standard being ‘law enforcement’.
One of the unforeseen costs of body cameras is this public demand for video. From a purely legal standpoint the police need to worry about the rights of the accused, the rights of any innocent bystanders, not tainting the jury pool and storing all video for a sufficient amount of time to allow for complaints. All of that costs money. The other issue is buying equipment that is reliable and idiot proof.
But the costs of all of that are not as high as the ability to *PROVE* that a shooting was justified (or identify, and remove the rogue cop) in a timeframe measured in hours rather than WEEKS.
The whole legal system needs to realize that 24 hours is as long as any investigation and publication had better take these days unless one wants to spend millions dealing with a riot.
One. News. Cycle.
that is all anything short of a war or trip to Mars is going to get in the 21st century. The days of taking weeks to investigate and analyze findings is as dead as disco.
Post the darn video, then worry about anything else.
...........good points!
surely the answer is “charge em”.
This charge could be per request, per item, so much over a certain number of requests and so on.
Anytime something is free, it’s abused.
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