The Andrew Brown Body Cam Rulings

In the wake of the April 21 killing of Andrew Brown, Jr., in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, I have fielded several media inquiries about our body cam law and the judge’s ruling limiting access to the footage about the shooting. With the help of the School of Government’s public records expert, Frayda Bluestein, I learned several things about our law. Below are a few that stand out to me. (You can read Frayda’s thorough analysis of the body cam law here and a discussion by Jeff Welty of a 2019 amendment to the law here.) The Judge Is the Decider G.S. 132-1.4A, enacted in 2016, establishes the process for obtaining access to body cam, dash cam, and other law enforcement videos in North Carolina (referred to for convenience as body cams). The statute provides that the law enforcement agency with custody of the footage may let the person who is pictured in it and personal representatives of the person, including family, view the video but not get a copy. G.S. 132-1.4A(c), (d). Viewing is called “disclosure” under the statute. G.S. 132-1.4A(a)(4). If the agency refuses to permit “disclosure,” the person or representative may petition a superior court judge to order disclosure. G.S. 132-1.4A(e). In this case, the Pasquotank County Sheriff, the custodian of the body cam footage, disclosed twenty seconds of five videos (from four body cameras) to Mr. Brown’s family and petitioned the superior court to allow greater disclosure to the family. Under the statute, the Sheriff does not have [...]