Oregon Legislature Legalizes Police Body Cameras (with Blurred Faces)

Willamette Week:

Lights, camera, police action.Oregon lawmakers today sent Gov. Kate Brown a bill to make police body cameras legal. House Bill 2571 passed the Oregon House 59-1 this afternoon, after a 29-0 vote in the Senate last week. Rep. Vic Gilliam (R-Silverton) was the only state lawmaker to vote against legalizing the cameras.Portland Mayor Charlie Hales has pushed for the bill, and says he plans to outfit Portland Police Bureau officers with cameras later this year. But citizens shouldn't expect to see much of the footage. The bill passed with tight restrictions over when media can obtain body-camera video. The bill says that before releasing video to the public or media, police must blur out all faces beyond recognition. It also contains a city of Portland-backed amendment that requires citizens to cite the date and time when that footage was taken. The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association (of which WW is an associate member) and the Oregon Association of Broadcasters asked state lawmakers to change the bill or squash it entirely, rather than create a database of police video the public can’t see.WW examined the issue in April.

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