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Here are some of the other stories catching our attention.

House Gives Tentative Approval For New Police Body-Cam Rules

A police officer wearing a body cam.
Tom Bullock
/
WFAE

The North Carolina House has given tentative approval of a plan to make police body camera footage more accessible to the public. But not everyone is happy with the bill.

The allure of police body cameras can be boiled down to a single word - accountability. The footage they record can be used to show misdeeds by police or the public. But that accountability can only be accomplished if citizens, lawyers and officials have access to the videos. And currently they don’t in many North Carolina jurisdictions because the footage is deemed part of the officer’s personnel record. "And once something is considered a personnel record," said Republican Representative Allen McNeil, "it’s pretty much closed forever. There are some procedures to get them but they’re pretty difficult." McNiel is a sponsor of the measure officially titledLaw Enforcement Recordings No Public Record.

McNeil says the name is accurate, "It declares it not a public record. But it declares it not a personnel record."

Which means you can’t just go down to the station and get your hands on all the recordings to make your own version of the TV show COPS. But if you believe your voice or image have been recorded, and you tell the officers roughly when and where the recording was made, you should be shown the footage in question within a reasonable amount of time.

The police, however, can deny your request for some specific reasons, like an undercover officer or informant is also in the recording. But the measure also lays out a process where you can petition a judge to overturn that decision.

All this largely mirrors the current policy of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

The bill received bipartisan support. Representative Elmer Flyod was one of 21 Democrats to support the measure. "It’s what I consider a middle approach towards the concerns which have come about within our communities."

But the bill did spur a heated debate. Largely lead by Democrat Nathan Baskerville. He believes body-cam footage should be a public record, and cited the current state rules established in 1938, which says "All documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes," which are created by the state, are to be considered a public record.

But few seem swayed by the wording of the statute. The bill was approved 87 to 19.

It faces one more vote in the House, then it’s off to the Senate for consideration.

Tom Bullock decided to trade the khaki clad masses and traffic of Washington DC for Charlotte in 2014. Before joining WFAE, Tom spent 15 years working for NPR. Over that time he served as everything from an intern to senior producer of NPR’s Election Unit. Tom also spent five years as the senior producer of NPR’s Foreign Desk where he produced and reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon among others. Tom is looking forward to finally convincing his young daughter, Charlotte, that her new hometown was not, in fact, named after her.