Connecticut

CT budget committee approves bill charging for redacted police videos

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2023

CT budget committee approves bill charging for redacted police videos

The legislature’s budget committee voted unanimously to allow police to charge fees for redacting video from police cameras.

While police and municipalities have been able to charge fees for public records for years, the rapidly growing use of body and dashboard cameras has opened up a new world of public information that is available.

The volume of videos is large as thousands of police officers across the state in 169 cities and towns are now required under state law to wear body cameras.

Waterbury police release body cam footage of confrontation with man allegedly in possession of illegal gun and over 1,400 bags of heroin

Under the bill, the police could charge a maximum of up to $100 per hour for the working time of the officials to comply with freedom of information requests.

Police would be able to charge for “the hourly salary attributed to all agency employees engaged in providing the requested record, including their time performing necessary formatting or programming functions, but not including search or retrieval costs,” a nonpartisan bill summary says. ”They can also charge for the cost of an outside professional electronic copying service, if needed.”

The main group pushing for the bill is the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, which represents municipal departments across the state. The chiefs say that some departments need to hire more staff to handle the requests, adding that no structure was put in place to collect fees in a multi-step process of reviewing extensive video and making redactions to avoid showing minors or potential invasions of privacy in medical cases.

“For example, a simple video that is short in duration with little or no redactions may take an hour or two to review, redact, and reproduce onto a disc or thumb drive to provide to a requestor,” the chiefs said in written testimony. “On the other hand, an incident that has multiple recordings from several officers, and contains images that are required to be redacted, may take 16-20 hours or more of staff time for it to be suitable for release. In addition, with the rapid increase in this technology, there are often additional features, equipment, and costs in which departments have had to invest to reproduce this material, yet there is no way for these costs to be offset by reasonable fees.”

Providing a one-page accident report was simple in the past, but the videos can require special computer software and the ability to blur out the faces of minors.

But the state’s Freedom of Information Commission and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut are concerned that citizens could be charged too much for public information that they have a right to obtain.

“The commission believes that any fee structure should be reasonable and that records should be provided at the least cost,” said Colleen Murphy, executive director and chief counsel of the FOI Commission. “The fees should not impose an unnecessary financial barrier to obtaining access to public records to which the public is entitled.”

The ACLU agrees.

“The ability to shed sunlight on government action through open records requests is essential to holding police accountable and to preventing state-sanctioned discrimination, abuse, and mismanagement,” policy counsel Jess Zaccagnino told lawmakers in written testimony. “We believe this bill would stifle people’s accessibility to information they have a right to obtain by charging people fees for records created by police-worn body cameras and dashboard cameras. The public should never have to pay to access records kept by the government, and that includes recordings captured by police body and dashboard cameras.”

But Betsy Gara, executive director of the Council of Small Towns, supports the idea because towns are “facing substantial costs” in trying to comply with the law.

“In addition to storing and retrieving such recordings, public agencies must redact certain information from recordings prior to disclosure, such as images containing nudity and images of an identifiable minor,” Gara said in written testimony. “This may involve blurring or blocking out certain content or removing sound.”

Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant

All sworn members of Hartford’s police department have been equipped equipped for years with body cameras.

The support for body cameras among police and the public has grown steadily over time. In 2015, the legislature’s public safety committee took the first steps by approving body cameras in a pilot program in three volunteer communities statewide after major clashes between police and individuals ranging from Ferguson, Mo., to Staten Island led to the deaths of Black men that became nationally known.[cq comment=”

At the time, then-Sen. Eric Coleman, a Bloomfield Democrat, raised concerns about images regarding sexual assaults that might be deemed by some as an invasion of personal privacy.

“One of my friends had a baby in the driveway, and if that was me, I would want the camera to be off,” Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, a Prospect Republican, said at the time.

Since police departments are independent in Connecticut, there has been a wide range of experiences with the cameras. Milford, for example, has had cameras since 2011, while officers in some other towns did not have cameras until relatively recently.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com

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Connecticut

Video shows plane wreck near Connecticut, not New Jersey drone crash | Fact check

Published

59 minutes ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Video shows plane wreck near Connecticut, not New Jersey drone crash | Fact check

The claim: Video shows drone crash in New Jersey

A Dec. 16 Facebook reel (direct link, archive link) includes a video of emergency vehicles surrounding what appears to be an aircraft resting on a guardrail on the side of a highway.

“Drone Crashes!” reads the post’s caption, which includes the hashtags #newjersey and #ufo.

The post was shared more than 1,000 in two days. The footage and a similar claim were also shared on Instagram.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Our rating: False

The video does not show a drone crash. The footage is from a Dec. 12 plane crash near the border of New York and Connecticut, according to media reports.

Video shows aftermath of plane crash near New York

A deluge of reports of drones flying unusually in the northeastern U.S. began circulating in mid-November, with more than 5,000 sightings reported as of Dec. 17. The sightings have sparked concerns about national security and airspace safety, but federal authorities have said there is no public safety risk.

The video shared on Facebook, however, does not show a crashed drone. Rather, it shows a small plane that crashed along Interstate 684 in Westchester County, New York, on Dec. 12, killing one person and injuring another, according to various news outlets. Footage and images from the scene match the scene shown in the Facebook video, showing the same small white plane in the same position on the side of the highway.

Fact check: No, that’s not a crashed drone. It’s a TIE fighter replica

A Federal Aviation Administration report about the incident said the pilot reported engine issues before the crash.

The New York State Police posted about the crash on X, alerting drivers to traffic closures on Interstate 684. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also issued a statement about the accident on Dec. 12, which confirmed one person died and another was injured.

White Plains is about 100 miles north of New Jersey, where the Facebook video claimed the crash happened and where witnesses have been reporting supposed drone sightings since mid-November.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who posted the Facebook video but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories and PolitiFact also fact-checked the video

Our fact-check sources

FAA, Dec. 12, FAA Statements on Aviation Accidents and Incidents
FAA, Dec. 13, FAA Accident and Incident Notification(s): Notice(s) Created 13-DEC-24
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Dec. 12, Statement from Governor Kathy Hochul
New York State Police, Dec. 12, X post
Connecticut State Police, Dec. 13, Troopers Assist National Transportation Safety Board with Aircraft Accident on I-684 in Greenwich
CBS News, Dec. 13, One dead in small plane crash along I-684 in New York’s Westchester County

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.

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Connecticut

Xavier vs. Connecticut Prediction, Odds and Key Players for Wednesday, December 18th

Published

8 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Xavier vs. Connecticut Prediction, Odds and Key Players for Wednesday, December 18th

The UConn Huskies have emerged from its poor showing in Maui last month to look the part of a Final Four contender yet again as we draw closer to the full swing of Big East play.

The Huskies are off an impressive win at Madison Square Garden against Gonzaga and return to Stoors to face a Xavier team that is going to be short-handed on Wednesday night. The Musketeers will be without leading scorer Zach Freemantle, who suffered an injury over the weekend in a tight loss against Cincinnati.

What’s the drop-off for the Musketeers? Let’s break it down with our betting preview.

Spread

Moneyline

Total: 147.5 (Over -115/Under -105)

Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook

Xavier

Dayvion McKnight: With Freemantle out, a lot of the pressure will turn to McKnight, the team’s lead guard. The senior is a dead-eye three-point shooter, hitting 45% of his shots while leading the team in assist rate, but he’ll need to create more for himself to offset the loss of Freemantle, who can play both inside and out.

Connecticut

Liam McNeeley: The freshman has done a bit of everything in his first 11 games with the program, second in scoring and rebounding with nearly 14 points and more than six rebounds per game while providing sturdy defense on the wing. In UConn’s motion-based offense, McNeeley has slid in nicely as someone who can create his own shot, evident in getting to the free throw line 12 times against Gonzaga over the weekend.

The market has rightly moved against Xavier on the news that Freemantle will be out indefinitely, and the numbers are quite jarring at the impact he has on the roster.

Per Xavier: “Zach Freemantle sustained a lower body injury in Saturday’s game at Cincinnati. He will be sidelined indefinitely.”
Xavier losing it’s most important player as Big East play begins. @WCPO
— Marshall Kramsky (@marshallkramsky) December 16, 2024

When Freemantle is off the floor, the offense stays fairly stagnant, scoring about two points less per 100 possessions, but the defense falls off a cliff. Xavier goes from allowing 89.9 points per 100 possessions to 118, which is the difference between ranking 10th in that metric and 336th, per Hoop-Explorer.

The Musketeers won’t slow down the UConn offense without Freemantle on the floor as the Huskies are the best two-point shooting team in the country, which can be maximized without the team having its power forward that can play both along the perimeter and shut down the paint.

However, with a limited drop-off on offense, can the likes of McKnight and Ryan Conwell get the fast-paced Xavier offense going to do some scoring in what may be a blowout loss?

Since Sean Miller returned to the program in 2023, the average score of the Xavier-UConn games has been just shy of 155 points and I believe this total is over-adjusted for the loss of Freemantle, who didn’t play in either game last season.

KenPom projects this total at 150, and we have shown that the Xavier offense hasn’t fallen off that much this season with Freemantle off the floor, so I’ll play against the idea and back the over in what should be a high-scoring affair.

PICK: OVER 147.5

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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Connecticut

Iowa State women no match for Connecticut, as Huskies post 101-68 victory

Published

16 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Iowa State women no match for Connecticut, as Huskies post 101-68 victory

The Iowa State women had another chance to make a statement on a national scale Tuesday night.

They were denied.

No. 4 Conneticut jumped out to an impressive 36-10 lead after the first quarter on its way to a 101-68 victory. Sarah Strong, Ashlynn Shade and All-American Paige Bueckers all scored over 27 points, knocking down a combined 17 three-pointers.

Strong had 29 while Shade and Bueckers each scored 27. Kaitlyn Chen dished out eight assists for the Huskies (10-1), who were 20 of 34 from the 3-point line.

For the Cyclones (9-4), Audi Crooks had 22 with Sydney Harris adding 17 off the bench, including five made triples. Addy Brown and Emily Ryan each scored nine and had six assists.

Connecticut shot 57 percent from the field and held a plus-nine edge in rebounds. They also scored 14 points off 14 Iowa State turnovers while recording 27 assists on 37 made field goals.

Iowa State held a lead at 2-0 when Crooks made a jumper but the Huskies went on a 24-4 run from there.

The Cyclones open Big 12 Conference play when they close out 2024 at Oklahoma State on Saturday, Dec. 21. The Cowboys are currently 10-1 on the year and have scored 92-plus in each of their last three since a loss to Richmond.

Iowa State has lost all three games to ranked opponents this year, falling to defending national champion South Carolina and Iowa.

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