Highway Patrol urges law to let agencies withhold graphic crash and body‑cam images; advocates urge clarity for access in court

The North Dakota Highway Patrol told the Senate Judiciary Committee it supports Senate Bill 2083, legislation intended to let public agencies withhold or redact graphic images taken by body cameras, in-car cameras, drones and other recording devices at crash scenes.

Aaron Hummel, chief of staff for the North Dakota Highway Patrol, said the agency wants statutory discretion to withhold images that show people in their “worst circumstances,” including deceased or seriously injured crash victims. “We body cams are are catching a whole new aspect that that law enforcement didn't catch in the past,” Hummel said. “And, we're catching people in in their worst situations. And and, that probably isn't the intent, or the intent there probably isn't for that to be, for the world to see.”

Hummel described three categories the bill would cover: images from body‑worn or in‑car cameras that capture nudity or partial nudity as defined elsewhere in statute; images showing serious bodily injury; and images of deceased persons at crash scenes. He also said the bill would add an explicit exemption for images of minors. He told the committee existing statutory exemptions already cover some cases — for example, images taken while a trooper provides medical care — but that gaps remain where one person's image may be exempt and another's in the same scene would not be.

The North Dakota Association for Justice testified in opposition. Jackie Hall, the association's executive director, said the draft is too broad and ambiguous about access in civil and criminal proceedings. “Our concern lies with the distribution of the exempt record at the discretion of the public entity and the ability to obtain in these images in a civil or criminal case,” Hall said. She asked the committee to consider a do‑not‑pass recommendation or delay the bill to allow negotiations among stakeholders and the attorney general’s office.

Committee members pressed Hummel on specific consequences. Senator Larry Lewick asked what would happen if private individuals obtained and posted such images; Hummel said current law allows public requests for many crash‑scene images and that without a discretionary exemption those images could be released and appear on the internet. Hummel pointed the committee to North Dakota Century Code provisions cited in his testimony and to an existing criminal statute that addresses illicitly created sexual images. He also said modern video software typically allows agencies to blur or mask portions of an image, rather than withholding full recordings.

Major Hamon (Highway Patrol) clarified that the proposed change would create an exemption, not a confidential record classification: “Exempt is not confidential,” he said, and indicated the agency would continue to work with the attorney general’s office to refine language.

After discussion the committee decided not to act on Senate Bill 2083 at the hearing and to hold the bill to allow additional consultation between the Highway Patrol, the attorney general’s office and other stakeholders.

What happened next: the committee took no final vote on SB 2083 and postponed action to permit further negotiation and drafting.

Context: Witnesses and committee members raised two recurring concerns: protecting crash victims and minors from public exposure versus preserving litigants’ and defendants’ ability to obtain evidence through discovery or subpoena. Supporters emphasized victim privacy; opponents warned the draft could make ordinary discovery more cumbersome and urged clarifying language to preserve access for criminal defense and civil claims.

A follow‑up: Hummel said agencies typically provide images to courts through discovery or by subpoena when needed for litigation, and the Highway Patrol is proposing statutory language that would preserve those paths while allowing discretionary withholding from general public release.