Body cameras

A body cam with flexible mounting options. (Hugh Carey | MLive.com)

LANSING -- With the prevalence of body cameras being worn on police increasing, Michigan lawmakers are looking to put some restrictions on what recordings can be released publicly.

Rep. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, said House Bill 4234, which he introduced in February, would make sure audio and video recordings taken inside private places are exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act under current exemptions already in the law.

Those videos could be obtained by the people in the recordings, a person who had property seized or damaged during a crime to which the recordings are related, the parent or legal guardian of a person who was recorded and lawyers of people who are in the video. Runestad said the Michigan Legislature needs to lead the way on determining privacy protections for private citizens.

"For the most part, law enforcement policies will dictate the use of body-worn cameras," he said, "but the protection of our citizens privacy should be guided by this body."

The bill would also require recordings from body cameras be kept for 30 days, unless the recording is relevant to a complaint against a law enforcement officer or agency or there has been a request for the video. In those cases, and if the video is relevant to an ongoing investigation, the videos would be kept for three years.

Runestad said the reason videos that don't meet those standards or weren't directly involved in an investigation would only be kept for 30 days, instead of a longer period or indefinitely, was to try to limit costs to police departments.

"It's extremely expensive to store (video) so we tried to limit the amount they'd have to store," he said.

It's expected that the FOIA exemptions for body camera recordings inside private homes will be challenged in court, said Shelli Weisberg, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

Weisberg said the exemptions in current FOIA law, which allows the public to ask the government for public records through a formal request, may apply to situations when police use body cameras in private homes -- such as an unwarranted invasion of privacy.

"I would suspect, initially, there would be some court action controlling how body cameras and FOIA work," she said.

Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth, said that gave him pause.

He said he used to be a FOIA coordinator and would hate to see a request for body camera footage come across his desk.

"It's going to be a minefield," he said.

Rep. Martin Howrylak, R-Troy, said he'd like to see companion legislation with the body camera bill that would specify how body camera footage is released by FOIA.

"Our intent should be to simplify the process and, in order to put an exclamation mark on this, it would be a good idea to have a bill ... that very clearly states in FOIA how body cams are handled," he said.

This bill is one of the first pieces of legislation to deal with how body cameras and their recordings would be used in Michigan. Right now, most local police departments that have body cameras for their officers set out their own policies on how body cameras should be used, how long the recordings should be kept for and what videos are exempt.

Rep. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Township, said it's important for the state to set the baseline for retention and usage standards for body cameras.

While local departments can set their own policies, Kesto -- the chair of the House Judiciary Committee -- said the state needs to "get the ball rolling" on conversations about video retention, privacy protections and FOIA.

"We can control the minimum standard, and if any other agency wants to go above and beyond that, we welcome that," Kesto told reporters following Tuesday's meeting. "At a minimum, we should have consistency of a minimum standard ... so that people know what to expect."

Kyle Feldscher is the Capitol education and MSU reporter for MLive Media Group. Reach him via email at kylefeldscher@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @Kyle_Feldscher. Read more stories here.