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Good morning! Today I learned that Kansas’ statute on body camera footage renders it practically useless from a public transparency perspective. Apparently -all- such footage is considered a record of a criminal investigation.
(That means that under state law, it doesn’t have to be released to the public. It is exempt from disclosure. I did not realize the law was so broad and naïvely requested some footage last week. Worth a try, right? Nope.)
I’m late to the party on this, but it’s frustrating to actually see the incredibly limited circumstances under which such footage can be released. And even then, the select few people with access can only watch or listen to the footage/audio — nothing about getting a copy.
So even in an incident that police told me officers had determined that no crime had occurred, the footage is behind lock and key. Per policy, I imagine that it will be deleted forever within about 65 days. 
I guess this is probably one of those #ksleg things to watch. I know now that I will be very curious about state rep/senate candidates’ views on KSA 45-254 as this election plays out.
P.S. Here’s an explainer on the policy I’m referring to here. https://bit.ly/37vJIYd
