FRANKFORT-A bill that would specify when footage from body cameras worn by law
enforcement may be accessed and used by the public received approval today in the
state House.
House Bill 373 sponsor Rep. Robert Benvenuti, R-Lexington, said the growing
popularity of body cameras among law enforcement agencies has made the legislation
necessary since footage from those cameras is not currently addressed in the
Kentucky Open Records Act. That is the state law that provides legal access to
public records.
“What the bill does is it says when a department decides to wear body-worn cameras
that we’re going to create a construct around how that video is to be used and when
it can be released because our current Open Records law does not address it and
leads to a lot of confusion,” said Benvenuti.
HB 373 would allow public agencies to restrict access to footage from body cameras
worn by law enforcement in specific cases, said Benvenuti, including but not limited
to cases where a recording shows the interior of specific places (including private
homes, medical facilities, or jails), a deceased person’s body, evidence of sexual
assault, nude bodies, a child under the age of 18, or the inside of a women’s
shelter.
Restricted access would be lifted, he said, when a recording depicts use of force by
a law enforcement officer, shows someone being arrested, involves a formal complaint
against law enforcement, or when a recording is requested by a criminal defendant or
his or her attorney.
Benvenuti said the scene of a motor vehicle fatality is an example of an incident
that may be recorded by body camera but which law enforcement likely does not want
to be made public.
“That’s obviously not footage we would want put out on YouTube or the internet,” he
told the House.
Benvenuti emphasized that HB 373 would in no way require law enforcement agencies to
buy or use body cameras, adding “that is up to individual departments and their
communities to decide whether or not they have the resources and the availability
and the training to use those body cameras. So this bill has nothing to do with
that.”
HB 373 passed the House by a vote of 94-2. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.