Reviews of body camera footage move forward

A measure that would allow law-enforcement officers to review footage taken by their body cameras before filling out reports is poised for approval by the House as soon as Thursday.

The measure (HB 305), which was taken up on the House floor Wednesday and is supported by law-enforcement organizations, would allow officers to see and hear recordings from their cameras.

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Bill sponsor Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, said such reviews wouldn't be available to officers involved in shootings or who are under investigation.

"This will simply allow an officer, who is responding to a lesser event, an incident of some sort, to review that footage to make sure that everything he's writing down in his report was properly recorded as per the video," Harrison said.

A similar measure in the Senate (SB 624) has been unanimously supported by two committees and awaits a hearing before the Rules Committee.

It would be up to local law-enforcement agencies to come up with policies and procedures about how the officers could review the footage.