North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is catching a lot of flak for signing a law that blocks the release of footage from police dash cameras and body cameras to the general public. Critics of the governor’s move came from quarters such as the ACLU and his Democratic opponent. The backlash came just one day after McCrory signed the law.
House Bill 972, formerly known as the Body Cam bill, stipulates that only individuals whose image or audio appears in a police dashboard or body camera recording can request to view that file. Even those individuals who do appear in the footage cannot make a copy of it, and law enforcement can deny their requests to view it in the name of safety, reputation protection or an ongoing investigation. Denied requests to access the footage would then be left to the discretion of a superior court judge.
Although North Carolina’s law had been in the works since April, there was no doubt a sense of urgency to its supporters in the wake of the July 7 killings of five police officers in Dallas, Texas. The next day, Missouri’s Governor Jay Nixon signed similar legislation.
In the aftermath of the Dallas shooting, such moves are predictable and understood. But they should not be acceptable. Cop secrecy has never been, nor will it ever be, the route to safety for police officers or the general public they are assigned to protect and serve.
Transparency and honesty are the two best tools for cops.