An Ohio lawmaker has introduced legislation to require all law enforcement agencies in the state to provide body cameras to officers.
State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) introduced House Bill 367, known as ‘Andre’s Law’, on Thursday.
The bill is named after Andre’ Hill who was shot and killed by former Columbus police officer Adam Coy in December 2020.
Coy did not turn on his body camera before the incident but the shooting was captured with no audio because of a rollback feature.
“There needs to be requirements in place that serve as proactive versus reactive measures when it comes to potential officer-involved misconduct. It is important to be able to provide transparency for the families who are affected by officer-involved shootings so that everyone is held accountable,” said Rep. Jarrells.
Andre’s Law would implement the following procedures:
- If a law enforcement agency receives a complaint regarding alleged misconduct by an officer, the agency must publicly release all unedited video and recordings of the alleged incident within 21 days of receiving the complaint.
- If the recorded alleged incident involves an individual’s death, the law enforcement agency shall provide the recording to the person’s spouse, parent, legal guardian, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, significant other, or legal representative upon request.
- Require every law enforcement agency in Ohio, by July 1, 2023, to provide body cameras to each officer in the agency (including correctional officers).
- Limit the circumstances in which an officer may turn off the body camera (i.e. when recording personal information not pertinent to a case; during an extended period of inactivity; during administrative, tactical, or management discussions).
- If an officer fails to turn on their body camera or dashboard camera, or tampers with any portion of the recording, it is inferred that the missing recording would have demonstrated misconduct by the officer.
