Posted: | February 12, 2015 03:13 PM |
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From: | Senator Charles T. McIlhinney, Jr. |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Memo #11 - Police Officer Permitted Use of Body Cameras |
In light of unfortunate national events and the level of scrutiny placed on our law enforcement professionals, some have made the call for the increased use of body cameras by officers for both the protection of the officers as well as those they are sworn to protect. In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses), to address an inadequacy in the law concerning the use of body cameras by law enforcement officers. Currently, a law enforcement officer utilizing a body camera must stop recording prior to entering an individuals’ residence, even when called for a domestic dispute, while in hot pursuit of an individual committing a crime, or responding to other violations of the law. Failure to do so would have the officer committing a felony, while stopping the recording would have those subsequently reviewing the camera footage wondering what occurred and why it was stopped. My legislation would remove this restriction from Title 18 and by doing so allow our law enforcement officers to continue to serve our communities while utilizing this increasingly prevalent technology. Additionally, this legislation will remove the requirement for notification by the officer of a recording when interacting with the public providing that they are in uniform, using an approved device, and party to the conversation that is occurring. Please join me in cosponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as SB764