Police-Worn Body Cameras Could Change NC Public Records Laws

The city of Greensboro is exploring solutions to a state statute that protects video footage captured when police wear body cameras.

Greensboro is one of the first cities in the state and in the country to adopt the body-worn camera technology for police officers. On Tuesday, a group of legal experts met to discuss if and when that camera footage should be released to the public.

“This is a case where the technology is ahead of the law,” says Tom Carruthers, Greensboro the city of attorney.

Carruthers, who moderated the meeting, explains that the current state statute says criminal investigation records are not a public record. However, it is possible for that record to be released and no laws will be violated, if the proper procedures are followed. But when the record is used to evaluate a public employee such as a police officer, it becomes a personnel record and the law is very restrictive on the release of personnel records.

Greensboro attorney Jan Pritchett, who served on the legal panel during the event, says he's concerned that the wrong modifications to the law could hurt criminal investigations and the privacy rights of victims the law is designed to protect.

“The reality is that the police have a right and a duty to be in places that the general public does not have the right to be. They are often called to private places and my fear is the release to the public of matters that might be personal or private or embarrassing for some people,” says Pritchett.

For example, Pritchett is concerned about images of children or sexual assault victims becoming public.

But Civil Rights Attorney Scott Greenwood says rewording the law will allow for more transparency. “You have these incidents sometimes that we refer to as lawful, but awful. This particular statute prohibits the police department or the city from showing exactly how our officers are doing in the field and that the officer's behavior was correct under the circumstances and that only fosters mistrust,” says Greenwood.

Greensboro City Council will review the information from the meeting over the next few months. The city attorney says he expects to send a petition to the legislature asking for changes to the state law when it convenes in January.