Ohio Governor Will Let the Cops Charge the Public $750 for Bodycam Footage | Public records request for bodycam footage in Ohio will no longer be free by default.
https://gizmodo.com/ohio-governor-will-let-the-cops-charge-the-public-750-for-bodycam-footage-2000549529
44 Comments
Sounds like an extortion to me.
Because fuck the poor
So body cams that the public paid for, is going to cost them for the contents.
Sounds illegal. FOIA should absolutely cover this.
C is for corruption.
But the public already paid for it. Police are public servants funded by taxpayers. A good lawyer will destroy that idea pretty easily I would think.
So did anyone actually read the article before commenting? I initially was like… why are they charging for what we paid for. Then read the article. It’s $75 an hour, up to $750. And the reason is because people are abusing the system for things like clips and youtube. They have to heavily edit and review the clips before releasing to the public, which takes up a lot of enforcement hours in admin over keeping them available on the streets.
I think there is probably a better solution to it, but I also see why charging can help minimize wasting time on doing it for people who abuse the system for their own revenue streams. Unfortunately that hurts the people who need it for actual legal purposes. Society just needs to be better in general and we wouldn’t have to deal with all this.
I wonder how many people would like the footage of the inside of their home released. Police show up for a well being check and your computer with passwords visible is shown. Maybe you or a family member is nude or partially nude. It takes time and effort to redact video and there should be a decent fee to prevent shotgun FOIA requests so the PD is inundated with them.
Abuse the least fortunate members of your society, then charge them a price most can’t afford to even start the process of accountability. What could possibly go wrong?
It’s like if a bank fined you for being out of money or some random profit driven person was in charge of your Healthcare…oh…
Surely this is sustainable.
Just what the pigs need, more money.
WOW. *You’ve no right to see what we do*. It’s an inventive strategy to put a chill in the air I’ll give ‘em that.
defacto ban.
Ahhh yes, the ol’, “lets put the body cam footage behind a paywall so its harder for someone to access.”
I requested some body cam footage here in Oregon, I think it was a $15 search fee and an editing fee to blur out faces of bystanders. I think it ended up being $40 or so for 20 minutes of footage. I never would have paid $750 for it.
No way this isn’t going to end up in the courts.
This is really bad. Live in Ohio. We have a corrupt local cop/dept. Body cam footage has shown them giving special treatment and a heads up to a pedophile, abusing an elderly woman at a traffic stop, etc.
But at $750 a video it’s unlikely anyone will request them anymore
Tell me that you encourage corrupt police force without actually telling me that you encourage a corrupt police force.
$750 for something that takes minutes to export? Highway robbery.
Very weird. I wonder what the logistical reasoning is. Makes them look extremely suspicious. I am sure it has to do with having to retrieve and process the film, along with high amounts of requests.
And when the footage mysteriously can’t be found, it’s non-refundable.
I never thought I would witness the fall of Rome in my lifetime, but here we are. Godspeed USA.
Tax payers buy the body cams along with the cops’ salary. Tax payers then have to buy the footage, too? Sounds an awful lot like an impending ACLU lawsuit – hopefully Trump won’t succeed in making groups he doesn’t like illegal.
Prolly rigged footage too. Do they have a gold package?
You made them get body cams. You make them use body cams. The public pays for body cams to “police the police” and to provide evidence of crimes by citizens and police misconduct.
You want to see the body cam evidence you already paid for (with taxes) and they want to charge you $750 for 10 minutes work to look it up and send it in an EMail.
Coveryourblueass in progress.
Time for everyone to buy a body cam. They are cheap!
And sued by ACLU in 3… 2…
“Freedom isn’t free” has a whole ‘nother meaning these days
WELL – then all Ohio residents can enjoy their full time “East Palestine” kind of existence‼️ Have fun with that.
Once again, a punishment for the poor. Just like a speeding ticket.
That’s bullshit if the bodycam footage is needed for defense in court your have a legal right to have this examined by your attorneys for court for a defense or offense in some cases where you are sueing or pressing charges. Are you telling me if pressing charges you have to spend 750 dollars for this information?
They legally have to withdraw any charge or they can charge for every piece of evidence a citizen may need examined for Court.
This is going to be an unconstitutional thing especially if you have an attorney looking through the information on this footage to bring a lawsuit or criminal case against the officers.
You have to pay to show others the truth about what happened.
And this is the party of less government? How much red tape, additional paperwork, and staff will be needed to implement this? More than zero I bet!
Making it easier for the cops to coverup their crimes
$750 is steep. I understand a nominal fee of $50-100 for processing and to filter out frivolous request, but $750 is egregious.
Where is Mr. Robot when you need him
This is why citizens need to film the police
That’s insane!
Justice for the rich.
This is the police state conservatives voted for ✔️
Cops salary paid by public, all the equipments including camera paid by public, governor’s salary paid by public, all the recording in the camera is of public, so why do public have to pay? Next time a cop, in Ohio, comes knocking on door for ring camera or security camera footage maybe charge them $1000.
Guess everyone will have to start wearing Bodycams. We can charge the cops if they want to see ours.
There will likely be lawsuits challenging this very soon.
Reversed Cops precinct/station house s should be fined if body cams are not worn or working to log shift.
That’s fucked up
Paywalled justice