CLEVELAND — Late Thursday night, Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill into law allowing police agencies to charge for body camera footage requested by members of the media and the public. Cleveland told us Friday afternoon that it has no plans to do so.
The provision, which was part of HB 315, means law enforcement agencies could charge for the "estimated cost" of processing the video — and you would have to pay before the footage is released. Governments could charge up to $75 an hour for work, with a fee cap of $750 per request.
This is a developing story and will be updated
"We are currently reviewing at this time, as the bill was just signed into law merely hours ago. We need to conduct our own research before enacting any sort of policy," City of Cleveland spokesperson Tyler Sinclair said.
He continued, "Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy and we strongly believe in the crucial role the traditional media has in holding government accountable. As such, we have no plans to charge fees to members of the traditional press as we highly value our television, radio, print, and digital media partners."
That being said, the city is still evaluating whether to charge the public.
"We remain committed to transparency and look forward to having further conversations with our partners in the media, ACLU, and other organizations before moving forward with any new or updated policy," he added.
DeWine's signing of HB 315 happened around 11 p.m. Thursday. The policy was not public, nor had a hearing, prior to being snuck into the legislation.
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