Officers could see body camera footage under House bill
Law-enforcement officers could review footage taken by their body cameras before writing reports about incidents, under legislation that is ready to go before the full House. The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Thursday in favor of the legislation (HB 305), sponsored by Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa.
A similar measure in the Senate (SB 624) has drawn unanimous support from the Criminal Justice Committee and hearings in two more Senate committees. “Anything we can do to help them ... is something we as a Legislature should undertake,” said Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura. “Particularly when we're talking about these body cameras that I think are an asset to all sides of the situation, because they show the truth.”
Rep. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, said he was surprised law enforcement officers aren't already able to review the footage. “To me this is an absolute no-brainer,” Burgess said. “Especially as of late, they (law-enforcement officers) seem to be under an intense and heightened level of scrutiny.”
The measure --- supported by the Florida Sheriffs Association, Florida Police Chiefs Association and Florida Police Benevolent Association --- would allow officers to see and hear recordings from their cameras.
It would be up to local law-enforcement agencies to come up with policies and procedures about how the officers could review the footage.
Harrison has said viewing their body-camera footage should help officers remember what happened during calls. Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a measure last year that allows law-enforcement agencies that want to use body cameras to establish policies and procedures addressing the proper use, maintenance and storage of the cameras and recorded data. By News Service of Florida.
180 Legally Defensible Law Enforcement Policies, including a well written Body Camera Policy available at Lexipol. See link for details: https://www.lexipol.com/law-enforcement/
Director, at Child & Family Training
7 年The logic (with which I disagree) for not permitting it is that once a witness has viewed video of an event, they are thereafter giving an account of what is on the video, not what they perceived and thought at the time of the original event. Actually when I say "disagree", I don't mean that the reason given is wrong psychologically speaking, it is correct. I just don't think what is lost justifies preventing an officer viewing the video, if a case against them is being made on the basis of the footage.
Police Detective/Bomb Technician (Retired)
7 年It's about time!!! No one has seemed to step up to the plate to fight for the rights of the officers in the past. Attorneys (particularly defense counsels) are able to obtain copies of body cam footage and armchair quarterback every move an officer makes at their leisure. They're given days, weeks, or months to come up with an inexperienced opinion of what the officer should have done in a particular incident and then put the officer on trial to discredit him/her in the presence of a jury! No stress, no split second decisions, no trauma! The officer, on the other hand, is immersed in a critical incident and is making split second decisions to keep himself and others alive, while being recorded the entire time. Then the officer has to give a statement as to what happened, many times within a few hours or less of the incident, without the benefit of viewing his own body cam footage. It is perceived by law enforcement opponents that the footage would taint the officers statement, which is ridiculous! For the sake of preserving the facts of the incident as they happened, everyone, including the officer, should have a right to view the recorded footage!