Cop Cams Face Threat From Transparency Law in Washington State

In the past few years, police departments around the country have outfitted officers with wearable cameras to record their interactions with the public. It’s a way to counter private citizens armed with cell phone cameras and, departments usually claim, to increase transparency. Now, though, all but a handful of the dozen law enforcement agencies in Washington state that use the technology are considering dropping it.

They’re blaming the state’s 42-year-old public-records law, which requires government agencies to release—at nominal charge—almost all records that aren’t tied to active investigations and imposes stiff fines for not responding promptly to requests. Police departments say complying with demands for body camera footage presents a huge burden, because many videos must be blurred or muted before they can be released to protect the privacy of people caught on camera. Alan Townsend, the chief of police in Poulsbo, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, says it could take his department three years to respond to a request to release about 1,000 videos.