Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is evaluating whether he wants to sign a bill into law that could charge the public hundreds of dollars for footage from law enforcement agencies, including body cameras.
The public would have to pay for access to the public property?
Even if he did sign it, that should not withstand judicial scrutiny.
While I agree with you, there’s definitely precedent for paying for public records.
Exactly.
It takes some amount of salaried time to do the work associated with making sure the correct records are released.
And to ensure that nothing being released is going to disrupt the fairness of an ongoing trial or something like that.
those salaries are already being paid, and $75/hr is not fair pay for that work, and the $75 is not going to the laborer. This argument does not hold water. it is obviously a strategic decision to decrease public access to public resources. is there any question what game this strategy is meant to influence? which players the strategy is meant to benefit?
Edit: from dogslayeggs’ comment:
… all citizens “have a right to as full knowledge of all the official acts of their officers as the officers themselves have, so as to enable them to ascertain whether their officers have performed their duty in such manner as is acceptable to them with a view to determine whether they will continue them in office or not.” The court added: [T]he records in the auditor’s office are the public records of the people of Hamilton county, bought with their money, kept in a public place built with their money, and in the charge of public officials paid by their money and selected by them. The officials in charge of these books, therefore, can be no other than trustees in possession of property belonging to the people of Hamilton county."
So public funds paid for it, and he’s saying the public should then pay to see it? I’d be interested to hear what Mikey thinks about the Ohio Open Records Law, specifically where the Ohio Supreme Court said, "all citizens “have a right to as full knowledge of all the official acts of their officers as the officers themselves have, so as to enable them to ascertain whether their officers have performed their duty in such manner as is acceptable to them with a view to determine whether they will continue them in office or not.” The court added: [T]he records in the auditor’s office are the public records of the people of Hamilton county, bought with their money, kept in a public place built with their money, and in the charge of public officials paid by their money and selected by them. The officials in charge of these books, therefore, can be no other than trustees in possession of property belonging to the people of Hamilton county. "
Only fair if they are paying $1.00 for the DVD it is written to.
These records could be posted online for download for free*.
Who the fuck it’s paying a whole dollar per dvd these days?
DVD media, a case, and the labor to load it into a burner probably averages out to a buck.
You don’t get to include the labor. They’re a public employee whose labor is already paid for by the public.
DVDs are < $25/100 and paper envelope cases are $30/1000 so about $.28/dvd fully packaged.
You should see what the cost used to be for court reporter transcripts.
This is already true here in Portland OR. When my bike was stolen from a light rail station last year, I would have had to pay something like $75 (I forget exactly) to get the CCTV footage. Total bullshit. My tax dollars your fucking salary and the cameras and data storage. Go fuck yourself PPB
