On December 26th, 2024, around 2:00 a.m., H.B. 315, a 450-page omnibus bill was passed. Within it is a provision amending Ohio’s sunshine laws, specifically around video public records, including bodycam footage. This amendment allows “a state or local law enforcement agency [to] charge a requester the actual cost associated with preparing a video record for inspection or production, not to exceed seventy-five dollars per hour of video produced, nor seven hundred fifty dollars total,” which must be paid before the footage is released. The provision was added to the bill without a hearing.
On July 19th, 2015, around 6:30 p.m., Officer Ray Tensing of the Cincinnati University Police Department fatally shot Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop. Officer Tensing claimed to have been dragged by the car as DuBose supposedly attempted to flee, forcing him to fire his weapon. However, bodycam footage of the incident later released showed that, not only had Officer Tensing lied about being dragged, nor had the car been moving any substantial amount, but also that the entire shooting was “unjustified,” according to a report published by Kroll Inc.. Officer Tensing was indicted on both murder and voluntary manslaughter charges, though the trial and later retrial both became deadlocked, and the charges were dismissed with prejudice.
Cases like these, both in-state and around the country, often turn the public’s eye to the issue of police accountability. What if Officer Tensing had simply not turned on his bodycam, as Officer Adam Coy of the Columbus Division of Police had when he fatally shot Andre Hill in 2020? In that case, the officer’s bodycam had a 60 second rollback feature that recorded the shooting without audio, and Officer Coy was found guilty of murder, reckless homicide, and felonious assault on November 4th, 2024.
In both of these cases, justice was contingent on one main thing: bodycam footage. If the footage was unable to be seen, there would be no way to know that Officer Tensing had not been dragged, or the circumstances around Officer Coy’s shooting of Hill. Sarah Gelsomino, an attorney who represents the families of those killed by the police, said in a statement to WCPO, “There is no one available to contradict what the officers claimed happened, and the only thing that we have to rely on is body camera footage.” By allowing departments to charge for bodycam footage, H.B. 315 makes it much harder to know what really happened during an incident, especially in cases where multiple officers were at the scene and recording. The cost isn’t limited to just bodycam footage either. Police departments are also allowed to charge for dash cam and jail surveillance footage, all of which are public records.
In a press release, Governor Mike DeWine claimed that the bill doesn’t “change [the] right [of the public’s and news media’s right to access public records],” and is instead meant to remedy the “unfunded burdens” the “often time-consuming and labor-intensive work it takes to provide [footage] as public records.” He also added that, in the case of "unforeseen" consequences, he will work to have the bill language changed. However, as the true impact of the bill has yet to be seen, it is unclear if these statements will truly be the case.
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