Bills Restricting Lottery Games to Senate Floor

The Senate Judiciary Committee began to wrestle Thursday, February 18, with the issue of classifying and maintaining video recorded through body cameras worn by law enforcement officials. Senate Judiciary Chair Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, presented his bill, SF 498, which would classify the video as private data unless the subject of the video requests it, such as for a criminal investigation. It also specifies how long the data must be maintained by the law enforcement officials.

"Some enforcement agencies have begun to use body cameras and are having experiences with it. And, their policies vary on the different aspects as how to utilize the cameras and, importantly, what to do with the data, the video and audio information that is recorded...it was time for the legislature to take a serious look at this question," explained Latz in his opening remarks to the committee. In outlining his bill regulating body camera video, he added, "The data that is gathered is going to be classified as private information, and then it sets forth a number of criteria for circumstances under which that data can become public."

In opposition to initially classifying the data as private, Mark Anfinson of the Minnesota Newspaper Association said, "A wonderful opportunity for enhanced accountability is going to be hammered pretty well by this nonpublic approach...this will interfere with their (law enforcement) credibility."

The committee did not take action on the measure or adopt any changes to the proposed legislation during the Thursday, February 19, meeting.