SOUTH BEND — A proposal to charge residents hundreds of dollars to view footage recorded by police body and dashboard cameras is drawing criticism ahead of its introduction at this afternoon’s Common Council meetings.
Bill No. 43-25 would charge members of the public up to $150 per video of an incident. If multiple officers are involved, or body camera footage and dashboard camera footage, the cost could rise in multiples of $150.
The proposal, which also sets fees for various other types of public records, is being introduced for discussion at the 4:15 p.m. meeting of the council’s Personnel & Finance Committee.
Black Lives Matter South Bend on Monday morning called on the council to pull the proposal off the table and instead explore ways to make police video footage more readily available to all citizens, what the group called finding real solutions rather than a “transparency tax.”
“Body-worn cameras were introduced as a tool to foster accountability between police and the communities they serve,” the group said in a written release. “Taxpayers funded these cameras with the expectation that they would provide transparency, protect citizens, and help ensure justice in police encounters. Instead, Bill 43-25 threatens to turn this promise into a privilege accessible only to those who can afford it.”
Black Lives Matter South Bend also noted that low-income communities are statistically more policed, and also that the South Bend Common Council has a majority of Black members.
The meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 4:15 p.m. in the council chambers on the fourth floor of the County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Boulevard. The public may also attend the meeting virtually at https://tinyurl.com/071425CC.
Bill No.43-25 also will receive its first reading at the council’s 7 p.m. July 14 meeting in the council chambers.
The fee schedule proposed in the bill would include numerous costs for public records from the city, including:
10 cents or 25 cents per page of photocopies, depending on whether the document is in color,
$8 for a vehicle crash report
$5 for a summary report for a crime victim or $8 for any other interested party
$8 for crime statistic compilations
$25 for fire investigation reports
$6 per page of blueprints
$10 for a videotape or DVD
The full set of fees is available online.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Plan to charge public for South Bend police camera footage to be discussed this afternoon
Reporting by Cory Havens, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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