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Highway Patrol seeks law letting agencies withhold graphic crash and body‑camera images; justice group urges caution
Summary
The North Dakota Highway Patrol asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to let agencies withhold or redact graphic images from body cameras and crash scenes; the North Dakota Association for Justice opposed the bill as written, saying the proposal could limit access in civil and criminal cases. The committee agreed to hold the bill for further work.
The North Dakota Highway Patrol asked the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to approve a change to open‑records law that would allow public agencies to withhold or redact certain graphic images from body cameras and crash‑scene recordings.
The change would add explicit discretionary exemptions for images that show deceased or seriously injured people, or minors, Patrol Chief of Staff Aaron Hummel said. "This change clearly gives agencies the discretion to withhold or redact records containing these images and video," Hummel said, explaining that modern body‑camera software also allows blurring or masking rather than withholding entire recordings.
Hummel told the committee the proposal grew out of what the patrol sees at crash scenes and on body cameras, including images that currently fall into legal gaps: some images are already exempt (for example, images of an…
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