Council delays vote on body‑camera fee ordinance after hours of public comment

The Common Council on July 28 deferred consideration of an ordinance that would revise the city’s public‑records fee schedule, including a mechanism for recovering the direct costs of reviewing and redacting law‑enforcement recordings.

City attorney Jenna Thoreau told the council Bill 43‑25 updates Section 2‑2‑10 of the municipal code to incorporate a separate fee schedule and to add a statutory option to recover the direct costs associated with producing law‑enforcement recordings. Thoreau said the ordinance would not apply to records delivered electronically by e‑mail when feasible, and she described other exceptions under state law — for example, criminal discovery, subpoenaed records, and inspection rights for people defined as “requesters” by statute (including people depicted in a recording, victims, and certain property owners and occupants).

Key points from the administration: Thoreau and assistant city attorney Kylie Connell said the volume of requests for law‑enforcement recordings has grown since the city began using body cameras in 2018; the legal team reported 611 requests for body‑worn footage since 2018 and said the…