COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is evaluating whether he wants to sign a bill into law that could charge the public hundreds of dollars for footage from law enforcement agencies, including body cameras.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, lawmakers passed H.B. 315, a massive, roughly 450-page omnibus bill.
In it was a provision that would cost people money to get access to video from police and jails. Law enforcement could charge people 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.
Legal experts say this could affect access to video from dash and body cameras, as well as surveillance video from inside jails — which are public records in Ohio.
Supporters say this would help cover the cost of reviewing and redacting video.
"It only applies if you want the public office to make a copy of a video record, and only if it relates to law enforcement, and only if the public office opts to charge," bill sponsor Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) texted me. "There is a cap of $750 max charge, but you can inspect the records for free and make your own video of the video with your own phone or camera."
Case Western Reserve University Law Professor Jonathan Entin said he worries this could prevent people in the general public from pursuing a question or complaint against a law enforcement agency.
"People are talking about how it's hard to afford groceries these days, or clothing or the car or your medicines, right?" Entin told News 5 anchor and reporter Tessa DiTirro. "If you've got all those things, having to pay $75 an hour for video — even for one hour — might bust your budget and therefore, you might not ask."
Now, opponents are asking for Gov. Mike DeWine to line-item veto this provision.
News 5 Investigators routinely break stories with footage obtained by police. Many of them have to deal with police shootings, such as the 2022 shooting of Jayland Walker.
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The policy was not public, nor had a hearing, prior to being snuck into the legislation.
I brought transparency concerns to the governor on Friday.
"These requests certainly should be honored, and we want them to be honored. We want them to be honored in a swift way that's very, very important," DeWine responded. "We also, though — if you have, for example, a small police department — very small police department — and they get a request like that, that could take one person a significant period of time."
It's the video redacting and compiling that takes time, and also making sure you are allowed to release it once you review it.
"Who else has a question?" DeWine asked after finishing his sentence.
I did.
"It's already hard enough to get video for journalists — when it comes to police shootings when it comes to different acts that we're trying to get on camera to show the public what's going on, why would we want to put a cost on something that helps the public understand what's going on?" I asked.
"Well, once again, we have close to 1,000 police departments in the state of Ohio. Some of them are very small," said DeWine. "What this amendment—again I've not made a decision about this— but what this amendment would do is allow them to recover some of the cost that is involved. This is a very heavy burden."
He added that he is a "strong proponent" of police cameras, but now that they are more widespread, he seems to suggest that it becomes tedious.
"It also creates a lot more film and a lot more video," he said. "It's not a question of whether you get it. It's not a question of how fast you get it. It's simply a question — is, as a matter of public policy, are we going to require some reimbursement for that?"
He then asked, "Who else," and another reporter asked a different question.
DeWine has 10 work days to veto or sign the bill into law after receiving it.
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