Why The Charlotte Shooting Video May Be The Last North Carolina Police Video You Ever See

The official police footage of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte may be the last police videos you ever see out of North Carolina, as a controversial law designed to keep such things from the public eye is about to go into effect.

As CNN reports, Charlotte police had not intended to release police camera footage of the Scott shooting, and only did so after mounting public pressure. Soon, however, they’ll be forbidden from releasing any police footage to the public, thanks to a new North Carolina law that goes into effect on October 1.

Two months ago, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed into law House Bill 972, which will require a court order to release any police body camera or dashboard camera footage to the media or the public. The law specifically prohibits police chiefs from voluntarily releasing footage to the public. The North Carolina Sheriff’s Association supported the bill.

We stand with those demanding justice for #KeithLamontScott #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/xsO8sqmqSl

— ACLU-North Carolina (@ACLU_NC) September 24, 2016

Ironically, McCrory said the new bill was designed to “ensure transparency,” according to Mother Jones. Specifically, McCrory claimed that police camera footage can “mislead and misinform” the public, according to CNN.

“Technology like dashboard cameras and body cameras can be very helpful, but when used by itself technology can also mislead and misinform, which causes other issues and problems within our community.”

Rep. Pat Hurley, chairperson of North Carolina’s House’s Appropriations, Justice and Safety Committee, co-sponsored the bill. She insisted that the law was not about recent police shootings, but instead was about setting up statewide guidelines, instead of tolerating a patchwork of local laws where each department handles its footage differently.

“We felt because of the cost of implementing the program as well as the cost of storing the tapes, that departments should have some guidance and the local departments should fund them, not the state.”

That police unions and lobbying groups helped push for the new law is hardly surprising: police nationwide seem to be hostile to the idea of having their actions recorded for everyone to see. The list of cities whose efforts to implement body cameras have been resisted by cops is growing by the day. Already it includes Boston, Denver, Riverside County, California, and Hallendale, Florida, among others.

As police deploy body cameras, public expectations rise — probably too much. https://t.co/Fwih2SrlO4 @baltimoresun #Charlotte pic.twitter.com/XYYmqPNKAs

— Dan Rodricks (@DanRodricks) September 25, 2016

Needless to say, not everyone is on board with North Carolina’s new reluctance to allow police footage to be released to the public.

Susanna Birdsong, director of the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), isn’t buying McCrory’s claim that keeping police footage hidden from the public actually somehow leads to more transparency.

“There really should be some minimum guarantee of access to the recordings by someone other than the police.”

It’s not just civil libertarians who are concerned about the law; at least one police officer would also like to see police camera footage more easily available to the public. Fayetteville, North Carolina Police Chief Harold Medlock, bucking the trend of cops opposing body cameras, says the he enthusiastically supports police using them, and their footage being made available to the public.

“I would rather let our video tell the story – good, bad, or indifferent – than someone who has a cellphone who has the opportunity to edit it. Sometimes we do ourselves a great disservice by not disclosing as much as we can.”

North Carolina is not the only state that is making attempts at limiting access to police camera footage. New Hampshire, Louisiana, and Minnesota have also attempted to restrict access to such footage, though Mother Jones reports that in those states, the public and the media still have “reasonable access” to those recordings.

Do you believe North Carolina is right to keep police camera video away from the media and the public?

[Feature Image by Skyward Kick Productions/Shutterstock]