Why bodycam footage is released quickly sometimes -- and sometimes not at all

How and why laws on releasing body camera footage vary in Ohio and North Carolina.

Disparate responses to law enforcement shootings of a Black man and a Black teenager within 24 hours of each other demonstrate the conflicting need for transparency and privacy and the sometimes murky policies at play behind releasing body camera footage to the public. On the afternoon of April 20, a police officer shot 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio. Within hours of the incident, the Columbus Division of Police publicly released footage from the officer's body camera, with more footage following. The next morning, over 600 miles away, deputies shot Andrew Brown Jr., 42, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. A week after the shooting, a judge ruled that the footage won't be released publicly and that only Brown's family will have access to view it. In both incidents, the release of the footage captured by officers' body cameras was contingent on current state statutes governing the technology. State laws vary widely on when and how the public may have access to bodycam footage, as demonstrated by legislation trackers from the Urban Institute, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).