EDITORIAL: Police videos are public record

We think that since police are public officials doing the public’s business, the cameras taxpayers provide them with should be recording a public record of police doing their public duty. Since police have the responsibilities that include stopping people, arresting people, taking them into custody and even using deadly force in some situations, having the recordings open to public viewing is vital for public confidence.

Not only can the cameras provide an unbiased view of interactions between the public and police, they can serve as a method of accountability. We don’t believe there is now nor has there been a pattern of police misconduct locally. We think recordings of law enforcement in Marion and the rest of Grant County would show a consistent professional job being done by the people who serve and protect us.

But we also have seen police in other places beating and kicking people while they lay on the ground as well as shooting and killing people running away, posing no danger to anyone else. In recent times law enforcement officers in other states have been charged with murder, largely on the basis of these camera recordings that this current legislation would leave entirely to the discretion of police for their release.

As Steve Key, director and general counsel for Hoosier State Press Association, told the Chronicle-Tribune last week. the bill as it stands might only give the public access to recordings “when it makes the law enforcement agency look good to the public.”

That is not transparency. We understand, just as is now the case, certain investigatory records can be witheld to preserve the integrity of criminal investigations. But we don’t think that law enforcement, which clearly has a stake in what any recording might reveal, shoiuld be the only agency to decide what the public sees or does not see.

The presumbtion should be that these records belong to the citizens of Indiana and, unless there is a good public interest reason not to make them available, we should be able to see what is happening as our police go about fighting crime.