Drafter
Clerk 11/22/2023
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to body worn cameras for the King County sheriff's office; adding a new section to K.C.C. chapter 4A.680 and establishing an effective date.
Body
PREAMBLE:
King County implemented a body worn camera program in 2023. Full deployment of body worn cameras is projected by year-end in 2024. King County's law enforcement officers wear body cameras and capture video and audio recordings of interactions between the King County sheriff's office's deputies and people in the community. Those recordings are subject to the Washington Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW. Upon request for body worn camera recordings, the sheriff's office's Public Disclosure Unit is required to review the recordings and, under the RCW, to redact portions of them. Redacting body worn camera recordings is a time-consuming process. Additional work associated with processing the recordings has necessitated King County to add specialists in the sheriff's office's Public Disclosure Unit. People involved in an incident recorded by a body worn camera may request and receive related body worn camera recordings free of charge, consistent with the authority in RCW 42.56.240(14). The Public Records Act allows a law enforcement agency to charge requestors a reasonable cost to redact recordings when the requesters are not directly involved in an incident recorded by the requested body worn camera recording. King County does not currently charge for that cost. Charging a fee would allow King County to offset some of the costs associated with redacting body worn camera recordings.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Under RCW 42.56.240(14)(f), law enforcement agencies are permitted to charge requestors not exempted under RCW 42.56.240(14)(e) the reasonable costs of redacting videos before disclosing the videos.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 2. There is hereby added to K.C.C. chapter 4A.680 a new section to read as follo...

Click here for full text