Legislation limiting public access to police body camera videos won final approval today in Missouri, nearly two years after a fatal police shooting in Ferguson spurred massive protests over the way police interact with residents.
The Missouri measure would bar public access to videos from police body and vehicle cameras while investigations are ongoing. And even after a case ends, videos taken at homes, schools, medical facilities and other "nonpublic locations" could remain closed to the general public.
Some lawmakers said they hope more police will begin using body cameras if the know there are privacy protections. "If the goal is to get body cameras on police officers on the street, this is how we do it," said Republican Rep. Kenneth Wilson, a former police chief from suburban Kansas City who sponsored the legislation.
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The measure now goes to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, who has not said whether he will sign it.
Police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson did not have body cameras in August 2014 when officer Darren Wilson encountered Michael Brown walking down a city street shortly after a robbery at a nearby convenience store. The lack of video evidence helped feed doubts and speculation over exactly what transpired before the white officer fatally shot the black 18-year-old.
Protests turned violent in the days immediately after Brown's death and again after a state grand jury declined to indict Wilson. A federal investigation also later cleared Wilson of wrongdoing in Brown's death. Wilson resigned from the police force.
Ferguson began requiring uniformed officers to wear body cameras in September 2014. But a recent Associated Press review of the nation's 20 largest police departments found that many have been slow to adopt or expand their use of body cameras. Neither St. Louis nor Kansas City, Missouri's two largest cities, currently requires them.
Many states also have no specific laws guiding public access to body camera videos. But that is changing. In the past two years, 13 states have enacted laws setting standards on whether such videos can be viewed by the public. Those include three states Indiana, Utah and Washington - that passed measures earlier this year.
