Democrat Roy Cooper has extended his fundraising advantage over Republican incumbent Pat McCrory in the North Carolina governor’s race – one that’s been shaded by a state law McCrory signed limiting anti-discrimination rules for LGBT people.
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McCrory signed the bill while surrounded by law enforcement officers from several departments and against the backdrop of fatal police shootings last week of black men by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana, along with the shooting deaths of five police officers by a black gunman in Dallas who was targeting white cops. This law says that footage from body cameras is not public record, but also sets parameters for who and how someone can get access to those recordings.
Cooper said the legislature may need to make improvements.
The new law is particularly controversial in the aftermath of recent police murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both of which inspired mass outrage thanks to video documentation.
“If you hold a piece of film for a long period of time, you completely lose the trust of individuals”, the governor said.
The law goes into effect October 1.
McCrory said the law walks a fine line and ensures transparency. Law enforcement agencies will have full discretion over what footage will and will not be revealed; they may choose to cite any number of concerns (officer safety or reputation, whether confidentiality is “necessary to protect either an active or inactive internal or criminal investigation or potential internal or criminal investigation”) when making their decision.
If anything has changed the way law enforcement engages with the public in the last quarter-century or so, it’s video evidence-not just introduced in court but available to the public, allowing entire communities to see the results of an encounter. She added that her organization believes the access should also extend to representatives of the subject, including members of the subject’s family.
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina called it a “shameful law” that will make holding police accountable for their actions “nearly impossible”.
“Body cameras should be a tool to make law enforcement more transparent and accountable to the communities they serve, but this shameful law will make it almost impossible to achieve those goals”, said Susanna Birdsong, an attorney for the ACLU of North Carolina.
“We will continue to stand up for the most vulnerable in our communities and ask any person who has trouble obtaining or viewing body cam footage recorded by police to contact us”, Birdsong said.
McCrory did not take questions after he signed the bill.
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North Carolina has a new law directing how police worn body camera footage can be used. “Lord knows the events of the past week made clear that in order for the public to understand what’s going on in the world, that kind of video can be really telling”.
