Sen. Aaron Ford’s initiative to bring body-worn cameras to all police agencies in Nevada (SB176) would use fees on telephone service to fund them. Here’s the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s story and the Nevada Independent’s live-tweet coverage of Monday’s hearing in the Senate Government Affairs Committee. I spoke in favor of …
Read More »Video of police officer is public record, judge rules
There’s more than meets the eye to this recent ruling by a federal judge that a police body-cam video in Las Vegas is, indeed, a public record. (Thanks to Vanessa Spinazola at ACLU for bringing this ruling to my attention.) First, it’s good news to open-government advocates that the judge …
Read More »Covering the story on the North Charleston shooting
I’m copying a story from the South Carolina Press Association’s newsletter this morning that traces The Post and Courier’s coverage of a video that exploded across the nation’s headlines. It touches on a number of issues, such as police body-cameras and victims’ rights, that are relevant in Nevada and nationwide. …
Read More »How to make police videos a matter of public record
For police body-cam videos to do any good, they have to be seen by the public. That much seems obvious from the many examples floating around the internet, and the results seen by police departments that have started using them. But, as I’ve said before, there are plenty of issues …
Read More »Bringing police body-cams into sharper focus
Testimony on two bills requiring the use of body-cams by Nevada police departments showed how much of the devil is going to be in the details. One bill, AB162, comes from Assemblyman Harvey Munford. The other, SB111, from Sen. Aaron Ford would apply only to Clark and Washoe counties, but …
Read More »Are body-cam videos public records?
Are body-cam videos public records? (Originally published November 2014 at nevadapress When police wear body cameras, are the videos considered a matter of public record? As Las Vegas Metro police prepare to join a study in which 400 officers will wear the devices, it’s an open and largely untested question …
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