Ohio Governor Slammed For Signing Bill Allowing Police to Charge $750 for Access to Body Cam Footage — 'Somebody Should Sue'
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has been criticized for signing bill allowing police to charge $750 for body cam footage access.
Jan. 3 2025, Published 7:00 p.m. ET
Ohioans are not happy after hearing a shocking new bill could block access to police and jail footage.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a controversial bill on Thursday night, allowing law enforcement to charge for public access to body cam, dash cam, and jail surveillance videos.
Ohioans could soon be blocked from easily accessing police and jail footage thanks to a provision sneaking into a last-minute bill.
Under the new law, agencies can charge up to $75 per hour of footage to cover processing costs, with a cap of $750 per request.
The fee must be paid before the footage is released.
DeWine faced backlash from Ohio natives after signing H.B. 315 into law on Thursday.
On social media, the state's residents were quick to show their dissatisfaction over DeWine, the 70th Governor of Ohio, signing H.B. 315 into law.
One person wrote on X: "Somebody should sue. You can’t charge for FOIA."
A second said: "We’re only three days into 2025 and they’re already starting with the nonsense."
A third yelled: "That’s ridiculous!" as a fourth asked, "What the absolute f--k???"
Another questioned the governor: "Are you serious? @GovMikeDeWine Why didn’t the public hear about this prior to the bill being signed? This is a major issue."
After facing backlash for approving the provision, DeWine said he remains a "strong proponent" of police cameras and has no intention of restricting access to footage, which is public record.
He said in a news release Thursday: "Law enforcement-worn body cameras and dashboard cameras have been a major improvement for both law enforcement investigations and for accountability.
"However, I am sensitive to the fact that this changing technology has affected law enforcement by oftentimes creating unfunded burdens on these agencies, especially when it comes to the often time-consuming and labor-intensive work it takes to provide them as public records."
DeWine said he remains a 'strong proponent' of police cameras and has no intention of restricting access to footage, which is public record.
Republican Rep. Bill Seitz, who sponsored the bill, clarified that the fee applies only if a public office creates a copy of a law enforcement video.
He emphasized people can still inspect records for free and use their own devices to record the footage.
Republican lawmaker Niraj Antani expressed concern over the new fee for public records being burdensome, stressing that his original goal with the law was to ensure clear access to police body camera footage for the public and media.
Antani said: "When I sponsored HB 425, which established public record law for police worn body camera videos, our goal was to ensure the public and news media had clear access to body camera videos of public concern.
"Certainly, the cost of properly blurring out the videos and storage was something we discussed at length with our law enforcement partners."
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In November 2018, DeWine was elected to serve as the 70th Governor of Ohio.
Case Western Law Professor Jonathan Entin warned the provision could impact whether police footage is made public.
He explained: "People are talking about how it’s hard to afford groceries these days, or clothing or the car or your medicines, right? If you’ve got all those things, having to pay $75 an hour for video – even for one hour – might bust your budget and therefore, you might not ask."
