Senators push police camera regulations

Hawaii lawmakers are looking to take control over how police cameras are used and who manages footage as increasing numbers of officers throughout the state are expected to wear video recording devices.

Leaders of the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee on Tuesday said they plan to push forward Senate Bill 2411, which regulates the use of body cameras and appropriates a total of $1.35 million to the counties to purchase the video devices. The committee has scheduled a second hearing on the bill for Tuesday to allow the chairmen time to amend the measure.

The Kauai Police Department already requires officers to wear body cameras, while the Honolulu, Maui and Hawaii county police departments are looking at implementing similar policies.

The cameras can help protect the public by capturing incidents of police misconduct, while also defending law enforcement officers in cases of false accusation. About one-third of local police departments throughout the country now require at least some of their officers to wear cameras, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

But the recording devices have elicited a host of privacy concerns related to what types of activities officers should record and under what circumstances the footage should be released to the public. Advocates for public protections also say that a government agency other than the county police departments should manage and control the release of the footage, citing the fatal Chicago police shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, by a white police officer.

In that case city officials refused to release video taken from a police dash cam of the incident until ordered to do so by a judge more than a year after the incident. The footage appears to show McDonald walking away from police when he is shot, contradicting initial police reports of the incident.

Lawmakers on Tuesday indicated that they intend to amend the current version of SB 2411, introduced by Sen. Gil Keith Agaran (D, Waihee-Wailuku-Kahului), to provide lawmakers with more power over how the cameras are used. The current version of the bill instructs the county police departments to come up with their own policies regulating body cameras, such as how the footage is to be stored and when it’s released to the public.

Daniel Gluck, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, told lawmakers during the hearing that the bill provides too much discretion to the county police departments. Asked by lawmakers who should regulate the cameras, he said, “The state Legislature should do it and do it across the counties.”

Aaron Hunger, a former police officer and doctoral student studying political science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, agreed and told committee members that they should also look at transferring control of the footage away from the police departments.

“Perhaps the police department is not the best custodian of the evidence once it is produced,” Hunger said. “It would be like the fox having its own evidence of the crime in the henhouse.”

Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), vice chairman of the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee, said after the hearing that he and Chairman Clarence Nishihara (D, Waipahu-Pearl City) intend to amend the Senate bill to incorporate some of the language from House Bill 1738.

The House bill, introduced by Rep. Matt LoPresti (D, Ewa Beach-West Loch Estates) and backed by Hawaii’s ACLU, provides the state with greater oversight. It also seeks to provide the public with certain privacy protections, while prohibiting law enforcement supervisors from using the footage to scrutinize the activities of a police officer when there hasn’t been a complaint of misconduct lodged against the officer.

The House bill specifies that police officers turn on cameras when they are responding to a call and when they are conducting investigations or enforcement activities involving the public. Recordings must also be retained for three years if they involve the use of force, a felony or a complaint. All other recordings could be destroyed after six months.

The bill also restricts when the footage can be released to the public.

“My concern was who has access, why and when,” LoPresti told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. When it comes to public access of police footage, he said, it makes sense to start with certain restrictions and loosen them over time “rather than start with the floodgates right open.”

The House bill has a single referral to the House Judiciary Committee before it can cross over to the Senate. It hasn’t yet been scheduled for a hearing.

The Senate bill has already sparked opposition from the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, which has fought to retain control over body cam policies. Last month the police union filed a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board saying the union should have signed off on the Kauai Police Department’s body camera program before the department moved forward.

In written testimony on the Senate bill, SHOPO said it should have input on police policies.

“The four county police chiefs understand the demands of police work and the standards required,” SHOPO President Tenari Maafala wrote. “Therefore they are best qualified to draft their body camera policies in conjunction with SHOPO.”