Police unravel crime scene tape. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.)
Among the dozens of measures sitting on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk, is one proposal that would allow police departments to charge $75 per hour of body camera footage with a cap of $750.
The provision showed up late as part of House Bill 315 — a measure originally meant to revise Ohio Township laws, like allowing public notices to be published digitally or for trustees to establish preservation commissions. But in the last-minute rush, that bill wound up as a lifeboat for only loosely connected proposals unlikely to pass on their own.
The township bill, for instance, includes a provision defining antisemitism and another giving the Secretary of State greater latitude in disciplining notaries. Both changes crib from similar measures that didn’t quite make it.
The public records changes, however, came out of left field. No previous piece of legislation sought to codify the right of law enforcement agencies to take their time reviewing, redacting and producing video footage or specifying the cost those agencies could charge for their efforts.