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Proposed Law Excludes Body Camera Footage From Public Record

North Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would exclude law enforcement video footage from the public record. Legislators and opponents are grappling with citizen privacy and police accountability.

Under this bill, if you've been recorded by a police body camera, you can request to see the footage. If you're denied that request, you have to go to court to get it.

A House Judiciary Committee passed the bill Tuesday despite objections from policymakers, the media and a civil liberties group who say the proposal promotes secrecy.

They say the bill places too many barriers on getting the records and make the process less transparent.

The bill's sponsors say barriers are needed because some footage could infringe on citizen privacy if it were made public.

Many law enforcement agencies consider video footage to be part of a confidential personnel record.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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