LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) - When the Kansas City Police Department recently announced that about 900 officers had begun wearing body cameras, it was trumpeted as a move toward greater transparency and accountability, particularly in controversial arrests or shootings.
But law enforcement officials warn that even as more departments adopt body and dashboard cameras, Missouri residents should not necessarily expect videos to be released to the public quickly.
A state law passed in 2016 says only a judge can release videos during ongoing investigations. In cases involving possible criminal charges, either against a citizen or an officer, a judge must decide if the public will see the videos before court proceedings end.
The law is designed to balance a defendant’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know the facts of a case, said Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd, who was on a committee that wrote camera guidelines for Kansas City police.
“Those are both very important foundational principles of American government,” Zahnd said. “Sometimes they conflict with each other and we have to ask a judge to balance those two interests and make the decision.”
Police body and dashboard camera videos have become a flashpoint across the country, particularly in cases where officers shoot or have a violent confrontation with a person of color.
How the releases are handled varies by state, and the differences played out in two high-profile police shootings of Black people in April.
Ohio law doesn’t govern when police agencies can release body cam videos, and Columbus, Ohio, police released body camera footage within hours of a fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on April 20.
But North Carolina, like Missouri, makes most video footage a closed record and requires a judge’s order for release. On April 28, a judge refused to release video footage of deputies shooting and killing Andrew Brown Jr., saying to do so could jeopardize the investigation into Brown Jr.’s death.
The public’s expectation that police videos will be released - and quickly - has grown in the last five years, as more departments wear body cameras and civil rights advocates show less patience for waiting, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which wrote guidelines police department use of videos.
Departments that agree to wear body cameras send a message that the public can expect greater transparency, he said, and delaying the release contradicts that message.
States like Missouri that hold the release until a judge rules put law enforcement officials in a difficult position, Wexler said, because the public often doesn’t understand the process.
“There was a time not long ago when a police department would say we have to wait for the investigation to be completed,” Wexler said. “That’s becoming a thing of the past. Now, when the department has a video, every day they don’t release it, they wind up losing community trust.”
While acknowledging that a defendant’s right to a fair investigation and trial is a primary concern, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters-Baker said law enforcement agencies have only themselves to blame for the public’s skepticism when release of videos is delayed.
“Generally, the public would say the longer (law enforcement) has this information, they are just trying to find a way to explain it or cover something up,” Baker said. “That’s the view of the world right now. We have to operate in the present circumstances and we had better be as transparent as the moment and case facts allow us to be.”
Missouri’s law also keeps videos closed records if they are taken in nonpublic locations, such as homes, schools or medical facilities, although family members or their lawyers can access the footage. A judge also can consider whether releasing the video would shame a person, such as someone who is only partially clothed or in mental distress.
While law enforcement officers resisted body and dashboard cameras in the past, many now see them as protection.
Joplin Police Capt. William Davis said the department has come to see the value of the videos since getting its first cameras in 2015. All officers and supervisors have worn cameras since November 2020.
“It’s been a tremendous success for us,” Davis said. “It gives us firsthand documentation of an incident, so instead of having to go back and read an incident report, you can watch and listen for yourself. … We do hope the public understands that balancing act of (releasing the tape) with protecting people’s privacy. But for us, the benefits far outweigh any downfalls.”
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