BOISE, Idaho — Several Ada County Democrats are calling for a statewide protocol when releasing body camera footage. The announcement comes after Boise Mayor Lauren McLean asked Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts to release the footage from three separate shootings involving Boise Police Officers.
"In my legal practice and in my legislative work, this has been a recurring problem over decades," Sen. Grant Burgoyne (D-Boise) said. "It's one that we really need to take a look at to faction a legislative solution for."
Burgoyne and five other Idaho lawmakers believe that state law is not clear in who can release body camera footage to the public. The other lawmakers are:
- Rep. Colin Nash (D-Boise)
- Rep. John Gannon (D-Boise)
- Rep. Lauren Necochea (D-Boise)
- Rep. John McCrostie (D-Garden City)
- Sen. Melissa Wintrow (D-Boise)
Burgoyne acknowledged that the public, in most instances, has an interest in seeing the footage, as well as other evidence that is involved in cases.
"We've had cases in Idaho that have taken a year or more for any meaningful information to come out and be released to the public and by then it's really too late," Burgoyne said.
He added that people who are interested in these cases begin to create suspicion and fears regarding those agencies involved, while the general public may have forgotten about it entirely.
In Friday's statement, the Ada County lawmakers reference "a Boise case in which the chief of police was on television the morning after a police shooting laying out evidence on a table in justification of the shooting." However, in other local and state cases, they wrote agencies had a "very tight-lipped approach to informing victims and the public of important information."
The Idaho lawmakers feel there is no consistency in how law enforcement, prosecutors and others handle the information.
"Those are not the kinds of things that should be subject to who is in office at any particular time, it has to do with what is a good approach to law enforcement and accountability," Burgoyne said.
In addition to agencies being more transparent with body camera footage, the six Democrat lawmakers would also like to include "assuring that no one can bar the release of body cam footage without a court order" and "when a court is asked to bar release it should be required to carefully consider not only the rights and interests of those involved in the matter but the public's interest as well."
The lawmakers plan to reach out to cities, police departments, sheriff's offices, criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors across the state to work with the legislature and create a "set of rules." Burgoyne's hopes are to get legislation drafted for the next session.
They also do not believe an entity or agency, like a mayor's office or police chief, should have "to go hat in hand" to another agency to get the footage.
"I think we need to put some rules in place to encourage people to work together on things," Burgoyne said.
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