Minnesota: Police can wear body cams, but no one can see the footage

In response to evidence that police use of body cameras may reduce officer misconduct, many state and local governments are considering mandating their use. One such state is Minnesota, but there's a catch: The way the body cam legislation is currently written, the footage will be essentially unavailable to the public.

The videos would only be made available, on request, to the people depicted in them — but concealed from the broader public. Officers, by contrast, would have unlimited access. And as Techdirt explains, "[a]lleged misconduct that is cleared by law enforcement oversight will move affected recordings into the 'destroy' pile, which means agencies can start deleting potentially damning footage almost immediately, provided there are no current requests for the recordings."

Should this bill become law, "We believe that use of body cameras would be essentially used against the public as another form of surveillance," said Ben Feist of the Minnesota ACLU. "[W]e would lose the big accountability issue here."

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