Law-enforcement technologyWashington State police overwhelmed by public requests for dash- and body-cam footage

Demonstration of police body cam in operation // Source: berkeley.edu

Police departments in Washington State are reviewing their dash- and body-cam programs as they see significant increase in public requests for video footage under the state’s Public Records Act, which puts no limit on the number of records that may be requested nor requires that the person requesting records have any connection to the information being requested. Government Technology notes that a June 2014 Washington State Supreme Court ruling required the Seattle Police Department to honor a dash-cam video request made by local news organization Komo. That ruling made police video requests available to the public under public disclosure laws.

In September, a local anonymous software developer, The Requester, began making public records requests to Washington state police departments, asking for copies of “any and all video” on file. The requests became a burden for most police departments and worrisome for police chiefs and the public at large who raised concerns of privacy. “We figured if the sergeant who’s in charge of our video program, if he spent an hour a day, five days a week, we would maybe be able to get this stuff viewed by 2017,” said Police Chief Alan Townsend of the city of Poulsbo. “But the reality is that’s just real-time viewing. That’s not the time it would take to redact the videos, to block the sound out that might be required and also black out faces and so forth.” On privacy issues, Townsend notes that footage from police body-cams reveal people in their most private moments, during interaction with law enforcement, which for many may not be positive. “We see the best people on their worst days, and some of these can be mental health issues or domestic incidents,” he said. “The laws weren’t written for this type of technology, and we really need to make some changes to make them more effective.”

Some police departments are temporarily banning body-cams due to the potential for mass requests. Seattle’s King County Sheriff John Urquhart said while his department has a few dash cameras, he could not afford to use body-cams. With roughly 400 deputies in the field wearing body-cameras eight to ten hours a day, it would cost thousands of dollars just to complete video requests from The Requester. “It’s (mass request) going to kill the body camera program in the state of Washington, and that’s a shame because it’s a great program. I am 110 percent in favor of body cameras for my deputies,” Urquhart said.

In September, police officers with the city of Bremerton completed a six-week body camera pilot with the expectation that the department would adopt the technology within months. Police Chief Steven Strachan is now concerned that mass records requests may become a burden for the department. For now, Strachan plans to wait for local and state lawmakers to decide how law enforcement should respond to the issue. “We were going through our budget process and my full expectation is that this would be fully funded by our council once this is resolved,” Strachan said. “But I told them that we’re not going to spend tax dollars just to put this on the shelf… My attitude is good policy and technology should move forward, and there is an element of, ‘We’ll figure it out,’” he said. “I think we’re at that point now where if we’re going to figure it out, it’s really up to the Legislature to get their arms around the unintended consequences of our public disclosure law.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, a proponent of the state’s access to public records initiatives, wants law enforcement agencies to develop an efficient way to make video requests available to the public. “We think it’s an important tool for government oversight, and for government transparency, so we don’t support limiting the Public Records Act broadly or creating exceptions,” said ACLU Technology and Liberty Director Jared Friend. “It’s important that citizens be able to create requests that aren’t necessarily specific, so they can gain insight into government activities.”