Police body camera bill advances in Indiana House

“There is a possibility for the bill to receive amendments when it is given a second reading, but it isn’t likely that the House is going to allow another panel to be formed to rewrite the bill,” Mahan said. “There is no interest from anyone at all to do that or come up with yet another panel that there would be a fiscal attachment to.”

The bill was authored by Mahan and a summer study committee during summer 2015.

Steve Key, executive director and general counsel for Hoosier State Press Association (HSPA), said he was disappointed with being unable to make headway with the committee on Tuesday.

“We were trying to move the committee away from the direction of law enforcement having all the cards in its hands without incentives for them to allow people to get copies of the cruiser or body camera footage,” Key said. “The committee was more afraid that making this video more transparent would lead to news outlets sensationalizing it and putting police in a bad light than the ability of the public to make sure law enforcement is addressing bad police behavior.”

Key said that the bill doesn’t execute good public policy as it currently stands.

“Even if a police chief or sheriff doesn’t want to go through the hassle of making a copy of the video, it is enough incentive for them to not make the video public,” he said. “The only way they would be challenged is if someone feels strongly enough about the situation to file a lawsuit.”

Key said HSPA is hoping to have another conversation with Mahan to see if they can convince him to make a change to the bill.

“We have all seen video footage of police officers behaving improperly and fortunately we haven’t experienced anything like the situation in Ferguson,” he said. “We are arguing that legislation should be crafted for the occasional bad actor, rather than being accommodating for all police officers.”

The final opportunity for the bill to be amended is at the second reading at the Indiana State House on Monday.