$750 for body cam video? Ohio police agencies set steep prices after law change

• Ohio police agencies can now charge up to $75 per hour of body camera footage released in response to public records requests.
• Some agencies have adopted the fees, while others are still deciding or reviewing the legislation.
• Producing the footage is costly and time consuming for police due to redaction requirements.

Some Central Ohio police agencies will now charge the public up to $750 for officer body and dash-cam footage under a new law signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in January. 

The law that took effect in April gives Ohio’s law enforcement agencies discretion to charge up to $75 per hour for video records, including body camera and dashboard camera footage and surveillance video, with total fees per request capped at $750.

The law allows individual agencies to decide whether to charge fees and set their own rates. Central Ohio agencies that spoke with The Dispatch said they are still deciding whether to impose fees. Police in Grove City, Reynoldsburg and Whitehall have already set new fee schedules, charging as much as the new law allows.

Media outlets often use body camera footage to provide insight into critical incidents involving police, including shootings. Critics, including media groups and civil rights organizations, have argued that increased fees for body camera videos could hinder transparency and give policing leaders the ability to pick and choose what the public sees. 

ACLU says body cam fees ‘financially impossible’ 

“It shouldn’t depend on how much money Ohioans have in their pocket to be able to enjoy access to public records,” Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist for the ACLU of Ohio, said.

Daniels said the ACLU of Ohio has grave concerns about the new law, which “sets a bad precedent” and will impede access to records. He added that many police agencies will likely charge the max for records, and it will become “financially impossible” for smaller news organizations to access footage.

Body camera footage is important for the public to access because it sheds light on sometimes hotly-contested moments in which police and witnesses disagree on events, such as when officers fire their guns or are killed in the line of duty.

On the other hand, compiling the footage is expensive and time-consuming for police agencies to produce. Some portions of the videos must be redacted to comply with state laws, including limiting images of uncharged suspects and crime victims.  Many police agencies receive large volumes of requests; the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office fielded 400-500 requests for videos last year, spokeswoman Tracy Whited said.

The law allows agencies to recoup pay for employees who redact and produce the videos, as well as video storage fees, redaction software costs, and other expenses.

Ohio police departments say body cam footage review takes time, money 

Grove City adopted its new policy on June 13, according to a copy provided to the Dispatch. The Grove City Police Department will charge a flat $10 base fee per video record to cover costs of redaction software and video storage, with maximum fees capped at $75 per hour of footage and $750 per video.

The requester must pay the estimated fee upfront before Grove City will produce the records. For “certain critical incidents,” the Grove City police chief may choose to release footage at no cost, according to the policy.

The Reynoldsburg Police Department’s policy, adopted March 12, says it will release footage of any incident in which an officer fires a gun without charge. Other videos cost up to $75 per hour or up to $750 per request.

Requesters must pay a $75 deposit to the Reynoldsburg police before the department will begin redacting the footage.

The Whitehall Division of Police states in its fee schedule that video footage costs $75 per hour or $1.25 per minute, with a maximum fee of $750 per request.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and police in Columbus, Gahanna, Hilliard, Dublin, New Albany, Grandview Heights and Upper Arlington stated that they have not made any changes to their fee schedules. Several of those agencies said they are still reviewing the new law.

Whited said body camera footage requests make up the bulk of the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office records department’s workload and have caused a significant backlog, leading the sheriff’s office to consider outsourcing some of the work to a third party. 

But hiring a private company would be expensive, and the sheriff’s office would prefer to keep doing the work “in-house,” Whited added.

Whited said the unit often watches videos three times: once to check for visuals that need to be redacted, a second time to review the audio, and a third time to ensure nothing was missed. That means a half-hour of footage could take over an hour and a half to edit. 

In other cases, a less complex 15-minute video might take about 20 minutes to redact one segment of footage. Most of the videos are about 30-45 minutes long.

Currently, the sheriff’s office has software that can track objects in footage that need to be redacted, like a piece of paper with a social security number or a child’s face. Sometimes, for unknown reasons, the tracking fails, and staff must redact frame by frame, Whited said.

The sheriff’s office hasn’t received any quotes for outsourcing the video redaction process, but it did request one for an AI redaction service to speed up its staff’s work. That quote came to $30,000-$35,000 for 120 hours of raw video and gave the sheriff’s office “sticker shock,” Whited said.

Setting new fees while the backlog is in place presents some challenges. The requesters already waiting on records can’t be charged, and telling new requesters they must pay fees, then informing them they must also wait 4-5 months to receive the footage “doesn’t seem like good customer service,” Whited said.

The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office is speaking with prosecutors and reviewing other Ohio police departments policies before coming to a decision, Whited said.

“There’s a lot of things we’re still looking at before we could implement it,” Whited said.

Columbus police spokeswoman Nicole Jaros said the division is still developing a policy in response to the new law. The division currently charges $1 per CD for records and does not typically charge for records provided in digital formats, such as email attachments.

Gahanna spokesman Dan Pearlman said the city doesn’t currently charge for video.

“We continue to research and discuss this with area agencies to see if there is a standardized approach,” Pearlman said in an email.

New Albany Police Department records supervisor Laura White said the department is considering charging fees and will likely do so. 

YouTube creators, bloggers increase demand

The department doesn’t just field requests from traditional journalists or local citizens, White said. Many of the requests come from YouTube channels or other social media content creators.

Numerous YouTube channels and social media pages upload large volumes of police footage, publishing viral videos of traffic stops, shootings and embarrassing DUI arrests.

“We get inundated with requests from … YouTube and social media outlets that are looking for a wide range of information and records,” White said. “It’s very time-consuming.”

In March, the Columbus Division of Police fired Officer Spencer Badger, who runs the ‘Columbus Police Body Camera’ YouTube channel. The division said he violated policy by downloading some videos himself instead of submitting public information requests.

Daniels said the new law may have been introduced as a response to bulk requests from bloggers, YouTube channels, and other organizations that publish large amounts of videos, and he understands that those requests pose a burden. 

But Daniels said those concerns could have been better addressed in other ways, like limiting the number of requests one entity could make per month. The ACLU wouldn’t be “thrilled” by that, either, he said, but it would be better than restricting access across the board.

“It’s hard to believe a compromise couldn’t be reached,” Daniels said.

Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.