I testified before a legislative committee yesterday in St. Paul on the need to update our privacy laws related to police body cameras. In many cases police video recordings are considered public; even in someone’s residence or while recording someone during one of the worst points of their life. This simply should not be considered public data; which was the purpose of my testimony. Our current data privacy laws need to be updated to reflect changing technology.
During my testimony I was surprised when one legislator asked why I didn’t wait for the laws to be updated prior to implementing the cameras. Well, let’s be honest, our legislative process is very political and not a nimble system; it can take years to get laws changed, if they ever change at all. The bottom line is simply body cameras are too valuable to wait for laws to possibly change. Rest assured though, we will continue to work with our elected officials to bring our laws up to date.
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Photo from Duluth News-Tribune
