COLUMBIA, S.C. — Every day hundreds of hours of video are captured by body worn cameras in South Carolina.
But only a select few are allowed to see it, due to a state law passed in 2015. Now lawmakers are proposing changes in order to increase transparency.
The June 2015 law requires state and local officers to wear body cameras and agencies to develop policies on their use. However, it exempts the videos from open-records requests, which means the public doesn't have access to them.
"What we passed in 2015 was a bare bones minimum body camera law without teeth," said Sen. Marlon Kimpson (D-Charleston) who was one of the first sponsors of the bill.
Now Kimpson is proposing a bill that would allow a jury to infer negligence when an officer fails to turn on his or her camera.
"Most of the officers are doing the right thing, by having the cameras on. this just closes a loophole, if you will, on the officers who don't have a good excuse," said Kimpson.
He added this law would most impact civil cases involving officer misconduct.
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster explained there's a variety of reasons why an officer may not turn their camera on.
"There needs to be some caveats in there to protect the officer that just either made a simple mistake, or it wasn't feasible at the time to cut in Order to protect somebody's life or something else in that nature," said Foster.
A separate bill proposed in the House would make it a crime to destroy police body camera video and makes that video public record like dash cam video already is.
Foster said body cameras are good for police and the public, but worries having all body camera video subject to public record could overwhelm law enforcement.
"We’d have to have some method to easily be able to redact the information and some method to be able to ensure innocent people's privacy is protected," said Foster.
As for weeding out bad cops, foster said that comes down to hiring and training.
“That's a character flaw. And I don't think you can legislate a character flaw," said Foster.
Kimpson has tried passing similar legislation since 2017, but has been unsuccessful.
Rep. Kambrell Garvin (D-Richland) said he's hopeful action will be taken this year.
"A lot of the policies that we have seen a success with did not happen overnight," said Garvin.
Sen. Gerald Malloy has also filed a bill that would specify that people have a right to video police encounters.