By San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board
California voters strongly support increased public access to information about police misconduct, including the public release of body camera footage in cases where misconduct has been alleged. Yet the state Legislature can’t seem to pass any major bills regulating the use of body cameras.
For the second year in a row, state lawmakers failed to pass measures that would have provided statewide rules on body cameras and informational disclosure, even as local police departments expanded their use of the technology.
The Legislature is failing Californians on a crucial issue.
The bills that have failed in Sacramento mostly have to do with the matter of transparency around body camera footage — who gets to view it when and how.
The bills that have died have looked at the issue from all sides. Some bills, like AB1940 — authored by Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove (Sacramento County) — would have allowed officers to view body camera footage before writing their police reports.
Other bills, like SB1286 from San Francisco’s Democratic state Sen. Mark Leno, would have opened investigation records, including body camera footage, to the public in police shootings and other serious use-of-force cases.
What this suggests is an unwillingness on behalf of the state Legislature to take a clear side on the issue. That’s upsetting for public safety and public policy.
The Legislature should have passed Leno’s bill. California has some of the nation’s most restrictive laws when it comes to the release of information about police misconduct.
Law enforcement groups prefer limiting transparency, but doing so eats away at the public’s confidence. It also creates friction between law enforcement and the communities it policies.
Body cameras are an important new technology that have the potential to shed light on controversial police cases.
The public has a right to see those videos — and the Legislature just denied them that opportunity for the second year in a row.
©2016 the San Francisco Chronicle Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
