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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Civil liberties advocates say one of two proposals to regulate police body cameras in Utah this year would give law enforcement too much leeway and would exempt videos of fatal shootings from open records laws.

The proposal, from Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, makes body camera footage a private government record if it shows "images of nudity, death, or gruesome events," or was recorded while an officer is serving a search warrant or needed permission to enter a private location.

Police would be allowed to release the record if they felt there was a broader public interest to do so. If they still decline, someone requesting the video would have to appeal to the state's public records committee or a judge. Neither bill has had a hearing yet.

"It makes presumptively private a whole host of types of recordings and probably would cover the recordings that the public most needs to see in terms of having some accountability," said Marina Lowe with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.

Thatcher says the law should lean toward privacy when it comes to sensitive footage. He cites the case of a January 2015 Salt Lake City fatal police shooting, where a body camera video shown on local news stations depicted 42-year-old James Dudley Barker attacking an officer with a snow shovel after a short conversation. The footage cuts out before Barker is shot.

"This is a guy who was clearly having an emotional issue," Thatcher said. "Now imagine that that's someone that you care about. How does that serve the public?"

But civil liberties groups argue serving the public is exactly what footage of that encounter and other contentious police interactions does when it is released.

Thatcher's bill allows Utah's Peace Officer Standards and Training board to set minimum rules about use of the cameras and requires any department rolling out the devices to have a written policy on their use.

Lowe said questions about when cameras should be worn and turned on and who can see the footage are important enough to the public that rules should be set by elected officials rather than police themselves.

Leaving it up to departments would also create piecemeal rules around the state, leaving citizens unsure of what protections they have from city to city, she said.

The ACLU and other civil liberties groups instead support an alternative proposal from Rep. Daniel McCay, R-Riverton.

McCay's bill spells out that an officer wearing a camera should activate it before or during a traffic stop, search warrant, interview, or other encounter and keep filming until the interaction ends.

Those standards ensure an officer can't selectively record encounters, McCay said.

His bill would make a body camera recording private if it was filmed inside a home and contains images of children or nudity.

The Utah Chiefs of Police Association has endorsed Thatcher's bill but is neutral on McCay's proposal, according to president Tom Ross, who is also the Bountiful police chief. Ross said law enforcement prefers that the Peace Officer Standards and Training board set the rules because it allows for faster changes as they adjust to new technology instead of waiting an entire year for the next time lawmakers meet.

Ross said about 40 of the 105 police departments represented by his group use body cameras, but many departments are waiting on clear guidelines before spending money to equip officers.

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