Brave New World of Police Body Cameras

Body cameras worn by police officers have become a common policy proposal in response to the NYC Stop and Frisk litigation and recent events in Ferguson, Missouri.  A recent story from Washington State suggests some of the unanticipated consequences of such cameras.  Apparently, open records requests for police body camera footage have put such a burden on state workers that cities throughout the state have postponed plans to implement broader body camera policies.  The problem is that the footage cannot simply be copied and produced:

“Due to privacy concerns, the department can’t simply turn over video, which may show crime victims, abused children and bloody crime scenes, but must scrub it of certain information, police officials say.”

One fix is to exempt this footage from public records requests.  Something that Washington State is scrambling to do.  Other issues on the horizon are the handling of litigation-related discovery request for similar footage, something that may be harder to handle; and after that, of course, the evidentiary implications of police body-camera videos.