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SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate committee voted Monday to send to the Utah Senate a bill that calls for the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Division to develop minimum standards for the use of body cameras by law enforcement officers.
Negotiations over public records language are ongoing, said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Dan Thatcher, R-West Valley City.
While the issue has been thoroughly debated in the Utah Legislature's interim session, testimony to the Senate Judiciary, and Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committees suggested critics and backers are divided on who should create the minimum standards — state lawmakers or members of the POST board.
Marina Lowe, legislative and policy council of the ACLU of Utah, raised concerns about POST officials creating standards for body cameras' use instead of the Legislature because their use is a tool for law enforcement and the public.
Policymaking regarding their use should be debated and conducted in the public square, she said.
But Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said the POST board meets monthly and conducts its business in public.
Related:
2 Utah police camera bills differ on what to make public
Civil liberties advocates say one of two proposals to regulate police body cameras in Utah this year would give law enforcement too much leeway and would exempt videos of fatal shootings from open records laws."We can make changes more quickly than the Legislature that meets once a year," Tracy said.
Mike O'Brien, Utah media attorney, expressed concerns that the state's Government Records Access and Management Act, which is 25 years old, would be altered under SB94.
While technologies have changed since its passage in 1991, media access of government documents — regardless of form — has "been managed quite well, in my opinion. Let GRAMA work the way it has been with the new technologies," O'Brien said.
Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, voted to advance the bill to the Senate but said he would not vote for the bill in its current form.
"Nor would I," Thatcher said, explaining that there will be further refinements to the legislation when it reaches the Senate.
