Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs bill to charge public for release of police video footage

Aria Garcia
Fri, 24 Jan 2025 04:41:04 +0000
Campus, Instagram Page, News, Politics, Bryanna Chambers, charge, Dan Tierney, dewine, HB 315, House Bill 315, law, Maragret Kwoka, Mike DeWine, monetary charge, Ohio house, ohio politics, ohio senate, ohio state university, osu, police body cam footage, police footage, politics, Public records, public records request, redaction, stage agencies, tiktok, youtube

Ohioans might have to pay to access police video footage after Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 315 into law Jan. 3. Credit: Andrew J. Tobias via TNS [Ohio flags fly at the Statehouse in Columbus. Not every citizen constitutional amendment in Ohio turns out as planned. The 1992 term-limits amendment is a good example, writes Bob Paulson in his column today. Credit: Andrew J. Tobias via TNS]

Ohioans might have to pay out of their own pockets for access to police video footage, including body camera footage, after Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 315 into law Jan. 3.

Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, said charges will vary in amount based on the particular law enforcement agency and its hourly rate. The maximum fee for one hour of footage is priced at $75, and total charges cannot exceed $750, Tierney said.?

Tierney also said state agencies can choose to enforce fees at their own discretion, meaning they can grant individuals free access to footage if they so choose.

The bill, which will go into effect April 3, was designed to compensate state agencies for the amount of work that goes into cataloging and releasing police video footage, Tierney said.

To be precise, Tierney said agencies must review every frame of requested footage to see what content might need to be redacted for privacy’s sake.

“If I put out a record that had your social security number, and law required me to redact it, and I didn’t do so, that would create a liability against the state agency,” Tierney said.

Some people who request and obtain police footage do so in an attempt to personally profit from the content, leaving a state agency “with no profit for themselves,” Tierney said. This, he said, is what partly inspired the bill’s creation.

“[State agencies’] issue remains with, again, these professional video channels on YouTube and TikTok that make their money through trying to get as many clicks as possible,” Tierney said.

In addition, Tierney said DeWine does not want law enforcement resources to be strained due to redaction work.

“The governor, again, remains concerned that he does not want a law enforcement agency to say ‘We have to pull officers from the streets and instead have them doing redactions in an office,’” Tierney said. “That’s not in the interest of public safety.”

Notably, several Ohio advocacy groups are standing in opposition to the legislation. Bryanna Chambers, community organizer for the People’s Justice Project, believes police video footage should remain freely accessible to the public.

The People’s Justice Project is a Columbus-based nonprofit that advocates for people of color who have been impacted by state violence, mass criminalization, mass incarceration and police brutality, according to the organization’s website.

“What [this bill] does is it’s allowing for police departments to put that extra burden onto families or people who have been negatively impacted by the police,” Chambers said.?

As of now, People’s Justice Project volunteers are canvassing door to door in an effort to educate more Ohioans about the bill and what it entails, Chambers said. The organization has also created a petition to collect signatures for those who are against the bill.?

“The most important thing is to make sure that people know that People’s Justice Project knows that this bill exists and that we’re taking action around this bill so that we can protect and care for our community,” Chambers said.

Margaret Kwoka, the Lawrence Herman professor of law at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, said she too has concerns about the bill.

“Any time fees are charged for the production of records, it will reduce transparency,” Kwoka said. “This is particularly troubling for journalism, as most reporters, especially on local beats, do not have funds to cover such fees.”

University spokesperson Dan Hedman said the Ohio State University Police Department received approximately 524 public records requests for police video footage in 2024. The process of fulfilling these requests includes reviewing and processing each video before it is released.

Hedman said because the bill is not yet in effect, he has no comment on how it will affect OSUPD.?

More information about House Bill 315 can be found on the Ohio Legislature’s website.