The Columbus Police Department was able to share the footage quickly because of a 2019 Ohio law that made such videos public record.
But a far different story has unfolded in North Carolina, where 42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed by sheriff's deputies on April 21.
Under a 2016 law passed by the N.C. General Assembly, footage from cameras worn by law enforcement officers is not considered public record in the state. Police and sheriff's departments do not have the authority to release footage on their own.
Instead, family members or the public must petition the court for video to be released, and a judge decides — a process that could take days or weeks.
A North Carolina Superior Court judge declined on Wednesday to release the footage to the public, though it could be shown to Brown's family. After watching a 20-second clip this week, attorneys for the family said the footage shows an "execution."
Frayda S. Bluestein, public law and government professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, said she doesn't think any other states require a court decision before video is released, ABC News reported.
Democratic lawmakers are now pushing for a change to the North Carolina law.
Meanwhile, a database from the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, shows states vary widely on when and if footage should be public record and who can release it. The data is from 2018, and some elected officials have changed state laws or proposed new ones since then.
Laws also differ when it comes to the redaction of audio or video recordings in certain circumstances.
Here's a breakdown of rules gathered by the Urban Institute and other sources:
- As of 2018, North Carolina was one of 38 states that had passed or considered passing laws about public access to body-worn camera footage. And it was one of 41 states that put restrictions on recordings if privacy is expected.
- North Carolina was also among 48 states to allow law enforcement agencies to withhold information requested by the public. Those rules include exemptions for active investigations.
But NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos said this week that North Carolina's law differs from some others.
"In North Carolina, they're even more specific because they care about who you are making the request, which is why (Wednesday) you saw a different outcome for the media as opposed to the family," Cevallos said, according to NBC. "A judge often has a lot of discretion in this area anyway, but when it comes to ... body cameras, it's not unusual for there to be special rules for body cameras or for them to be not presumptively releasable." - South Carolina also exempts body-worn camera footage from public record laws. A bill filed in January would make an exception if someone dies during an encounter.
- In Georgia, body-worn camera footage is held for at least six months and may not be disclosed if there's an investigation or if the video was taken in a private place, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Proposed legislation calls for footage to be released within 21 days of an incident.
- Other states, including Tennessee and Virginia, have considered footage public record but provide exceptions for its release.
A law passed in 2017 in Tennessee, for example, created an exemption for footage that shows "interactions with minors in schools, the interior of a healthcare or mental health facility, or the interior of a private residence where no crime has occurred," according to the RCFP.
In Virginia, footage can be withheld if it would "jeopardize an ongoing investigation," the committee said as of 2019. - In California, the law requires the release of body-worn camera footage within 45 days of an incident.
- The New York Police Department, which says it operates the largest body-worn camera program in the country, requires the public to file a request through the Freedom of Information Act, "unless otherwise prohibited by law."
North Carolina leaders, including Paquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten, Gov. Roy Cooper and state Attorney General Josh Stein, have said the video should be released in the Brown case.
A January publication from the American Bar Association said that providing the public access to body-cam recordings allows public to build trust in law enforcement institutions.
"Conversely, withholding BWC recordings from public scrutiny only exacerbates suspicions and thereby inflames the public distrust currently besetting the nation's law enforcement community," it says.
In Ohio, where the death of Bryant sparked protests, Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said it was important for the public to have access to the video, in which Bryant is seen holding a knife and lunging toward another girl.
"We felt transparency in sharing this footage, as incomplete as it is at this time," was critical, Ginther said, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
In the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody, several states made changes to their laws on body-worn camera footage.
In June 2020, for example, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order requiring every state trooper to wear a body camera and said state police should release footage within four days of a recorded incident, according to the ABA.
In the same month, Colorado passed a law that requires, by July 2023, all local law enforcement agencies to issue body-worn cameras to their officers and that "all recordings of an incident" be publicly released within 21 days after a law enforcement agency receives a complaint of misconduct.
Lawmakers in North Carolina this week filed a bill that, if passed, would require law enforcement to release body-worn camera or dashboard camera footage within 48 hours of an incident unless a court orders the agency to seal the video for a certain amount of time.
"North Carolinians deserve accountability and transparency, especially when a law enforcement officer takes a life," Chantal Stevens, the executive director of the ACLU of North Carolina, said at the news conference, according to The News & Observer. "We need the General Assembly to pass meaningful changes to our police recordings laws to promote accountability while protecting the rights of those depicted in the recordings."
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