Family members of people shot by police and their lawyers are raising the alarm about a recent law signed by Gov. Mike DeWine allowing police to charge up to $750, or $75 an hour, for police body cam footage.
Eric Lindsay of West Chester and the families of Andre Hill, of Columbus, Jazmir Tucker, of Akron, and Colby Ross, of Dayton, said at a Thursday press conference that the law will have a chilling effect on people trying to hold police accountable. Lindsay alleged he was racially profiled by police in 2021, while Hill, Tucker and Ross were all killed by police between 2020 and 2024.
Hill's sister, Shawna Barnett, said allowing police to charge more money for videos like body cam footage is a step backward in transparency and accountability.
"It was an invaluable thing in Andre's case. Had that footage not been there, it would have been a whole different scenario, because it could have been (Coy's) word against ours," Barnett said.
Hill was shot and killed by former Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy in 2020. Columbus City Council passed a law after Hill's death requiring police officers to turn on their body-worn cameras and render first aid after a use of force incident.
Coy was convicted of murder in November and is awaiting sentencing in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Barnett said she is also concerned about the cost burden on lower-income communities, where she said many cases of police misconduct and fatal shootings happen.
"(These communities) are using these body cam footage to bring about the justice and...to show, to highlight the unfairness that these communities are getting. These are not happening in affluent neighborhoods," Barnett said.
Attorneys Robert Gresham, of Dayton, and Fanon Rucker, of Cincinnati, joined the press conference with Lindsay, Barnett and the other families. Gresham and Rucker spoke out against the law, but didn't say whether they would take legal action.
"The law was hastily drawn in. It was hastily signed. And for individuals who seek public information pursuant to a public law that was all about transparency and access, we believe that is a travesty and it was wrong," Rucker said.
DeWine said he is trying to balance the needs of police agencies, especially small departments, that have been inundated with requests for video with the public’s need for the video. The governor did leave the door open to change the law should unforeseen consequences come about.
The fee was included in an amendment to the state’s sunshine laws that was quietly introduced and passed after midnight Thursday by the GOP-controlled legislature.
First Amendment and government transparency advocates said they were blindsided by the measure, which would give state and local law enforcement agencies the option to charge people for copies of records that most departments now provide for free or little cost.
WOSU contacted multiple police departments in the Columbus area, including the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Columbus Division of Police, Ohio State Highway Patrol and Whitehall Police Department. All of the departments said they are still deciding if they will change existing policies and start charging more money for these public records.
Rucker and Gresham said they have not yet heard of one of the hundreds of police departments in the state who has made a decision on the measure.
Gresham questioned the governor's reasoning for signing the law.
"It's disingenuous at best for the governor to claim that this is about balancing costs and burden to law enforcement agencies, especially when you think about it, within the context that the cameras themselves, the technology are required for those. The stores for that data and other costs are already funded by the taxpayers and citizens of Ohio," Gresham said.
Gresham pushed back when asked about how smaller police departments may struggle with the burden of editing and redacting these videos.
"Whether it be Cincinnati, whether it be Columbus or it would be Akron, whether it be Dayton. There are millions of dollars that are allocated towards law enforcement. The least they can do is put together body camera footage of which the taxpayers are already paying for and get that to the public," Gresham said.
Lindsay said he was bound by a settlement with the city of West Chester and couldn't comment on his particular case, but he did say requiring citizens to pay extra money for public records like these are wrong.
"We pay the salaries of these police officers. We pay for their equipment, and now they're charging us. Or now they want to charge us for what this equipment actually captures," Lindsay said.
The law was a provision in House Bill 315, which Governor DeWine signed last week. The law goes into effect in April.
