Pennsylvania Senate Approves Police Body Cam Bill
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- The state Senate has sent the House a bill intended to encourage greater use of police body cameras in Pennsylvania. But not everybody is happy.
Supporters of the bill say it changes state law to clear the way for police in Pennsylvania to use body cameras without exposing themselves to criminal liability. But the ACLU is unhappy with the measure, saying it creates a "byzantine" process to request video from those cameras, making it "nearly impossible to obtain."
The sponsor of the bill, suburban Philadelphia Republican Stewart Greenleaf, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, disagrees.
"It's due process, that's what it is," Greenleaf said. "They have a right to go into a court and to request these documents. They can request the recordings. But they have to establish that they have a reason for doing that."
The bill now goes to the House where passage is uncertain if only due to the fact that voting days in the current two-year legislative session have dwindled to only a few.