The governor of Ohio quietly signed a bill allowing cops to charge civilians hundreds of dollars in order to access police footage, including body camera footage and jail surveillance video.
Late Thursday night, Gov. Mike DeWine signed a law allowing law enforcement to charge those requesting video footage up to $75 an hour and up to $750 per request for their work editing and uploading the video, as reported by WEWS-TV.
While DeWine said the law is intended to help police departments cover the costs of labor for processing video requests, video that was used by journalists and the public to address concerns about police brutality or conduct could now cost them hundreds of dollars, as reported by Dayton Daily News.
The governor said that he "strongly" supports the media's right to access public records and supports police body cameras, but said that he did not want law enforcement to have to "choose between diverting resources for officers on the street to move them to administrative tasks," according to a press release.
DeWine added that he hoped this would deter commercial entities seeking to access the video just to post it online for monetized views. Some Ohio police departments have been slammed by mass requests from private businesses hoping to find clips that will go viral, as reported by Dayton Daily News.
Republican state Sen. Niraj Antani, who sponsored a law in 2019 making police footage public record with some exceptions, told WEWS-TV that he was "deeply concerned" that the decided charges would be "burdensome" to the public.
DeWine said that he is open to making amendments to the law in the future if concerns or problems with the legislation arise.
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