General Assembly Amends Rules for Disclosure of Body Cam Recordings

North Carolina’s law governing the disclosure and release of body-worn camera footage took center stage last spring following the shooting of Andrew Brown in Elizabeth City. John Rubin wrote here about litigation on that issue, noting that one prominent feature of the statutory scheme was that determining matters of disclosure and release “takes time.” This session, the General Assembly amended the rules governing disclosure of recordings that depict death or serious bodily injury to require (1) that a court determine whether a recording be disclosed; and (2) that the court make such a determination within seven business days of the filing of a disclosure petition. This post will review those changes. Background. North Carolina enacted legislation in 2016 governing the disclosure and release of recordings from law enforcement officer’s body-worn cameras. G.S. 132-1.4A provides that such recordings (along with recordings from dashboard cameras and other recording devices operated by law enforcement when carrying out law enforcement duties) may be disclosed (that is, shown) only to a person whose image or voice is in the recording or that person’s personal representative. A person to whom such a recording is disclosed may not record or copy it. Under current law, a law enforcement agency that receives a written request for disclosure of any such recording must “as promptly as possible” either disclose the portion of the recording relevant to the person’s request or notify the person of the agency’s decision not to disclose. G.S. 132-1.4A(d). Factors relevant to that decision include whether disclosure [...]