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Debate, Questions Linger ahead-of-body-camera-debate/76624762/
December1,20152:50PM Key questions linger
ST.PAUL,Minn.(AP)—After months of grappling with how to regulate body a h ea d of bod y ca m e ra
cameras and pressure from police to lay down ground rules in state law,
Minnesota lawmakers found themselves no closer Tuesday to finalizing those d e bate
guidelines next year.
Associated Press,Associated Press " . : ;;; ,r�'"r
The Legislative Commission on Data has met with police organizations,
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community groups and civil liberties experts,only to find more questions
than answers in its quest to queue up(egislation for the 2016 session,which
begins in n�arch. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota
lawmakers aren't finding easy answers as
Just how much footage the public can see remains up in the air.Lawmakers
are also wrestling with video retention requirements that could inflate they try to hammer out rules for police
storage costs for agencies and whether officers wearing the technology
GTshould get consent before entering a private home. Wearlllg bOdy Ca111@C'aS Il@Xt y@af.
"I don't think we've really had time to get through this issue,"said Rep.John The small recording devices are already in
Lesch,DFL-St.Paul.
use in some cities across Minnesota. But
Body cameras are being deployed across the nation,heralded as a tool to
keep police accountable in the wake of the death of a black teen shot by an those police departments set their own rules
officer in Ferguson,n�issouri.In n�inneapolis,officers weren't wearing the for how long the video footage is stored. A
cameras during the Nov.15 shooting of Jamar Clark after a scuffle with police
—the department had recently concluded a pilot project. (@glS�atfV@ @ffOCt t0 S@t gUld@�In2S Ill Stat@
But the cameras are already in use in cities across Minnesota even without a law stalled last spring.
state law,allowing agencies to set their own rules for how long to store the
videos and when to release them.But a legislative effort led by the Senate A panel of lawmakers studying body
stalled last spring due to a standoff with House members and concerns from
open governmentG�'advocates that the bill would restrict public access to cameras found more questions than
f°°tage. solutions during a Tuesday meeting. The
So,Maplewood police Chief Paul Schnell said,many departments are waiting Legislative Commission on Data Practices is
until the state sets guidelines before deploying the technology.The state
rebuffed a request from Maplewood and 15 other cities this summerC��'to wrestling with what footage should be kept
make most video footage private until the Legislature weighs in. p('IVat@, footage retention times and whether
In Burnsville,police Chief Eric Gieseke said the costs to maintain footage police should request permission before
from the 70-plus officers wearing body cameras are the biggest expense for
the department.But he and Schnell called them a valuable tool,citing the turning on body cameras in a private home.
added ability to gather evidence and disprove misconduct complaints.
"If people have questions about what we're doing,they can get the video, Maplewood police Chief Paul Schnell says
they can come watch it,°��eseke 5a�a. many departments are waiting to deploy the
The current window into police conduct would have disappeared with last technology until the state passes a law.
year's bill,according to law expert Joseph Olson,said which restricted most
videos to be viewed by only the subject in the images and the police
department,with exceptions when an officer uses deadly force.
Matt Ehling from the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information,an
open government advocacyGTgroup,said lawmakers should require officers
to require permissitin before switching on a body camera while entering
someone's home—or else risk lawsuits for unlawful searches.
"It should be slow and messy creating a law,especially for stuff this
complicated,"said Sen.Scott Dibble,DFL-Minneapolis.
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