Georgia lawmaker sponsors bill to limit police body cam access

ATLANTA – A Georgia lawmaker is proposing new legislation that would limit public access to certain police body camera and dashcam recordings under the state’s Open Records Act.

Republican state Rep. Joseph Gullett (R-Dallas) is sponsoring the bill, which would restrict the public release of police video footage that captures a fatal incident. The measure is designed to control who can view recordings when someone has died.

Gullett says the proposal is intended to prevent individuals from using sensitive footage for personal gain.

“It shouldn't be for driving traffic to your YouTube channel, or to your website, in order to just watch people, in their final moments,” Gullett told reporters.

If passed, the legislation would exempt such fatal-incident footage from Georgia’s open records law. However, the recordings would still be available to victims’ families, admissible in civil court proceedings, and accessible as part of official investigations.

“We're not trying to restrict solving a crime,” Gullett said. “We're trying to just make sure someone's final moments, they have some dignity in their life and in their death.”

Opponents argue the bill could create unintended consequences.

Democratic state Rep. Eric Bell (D-Jonesboro) expressed concern that limiting access to such footage could make it more difficult to uncover potential police misconduct.

“If there was never any civil unrest, if there was never a letter written, if there was never a phone call made, or a protest or a demonstration organized, many of these families would never have seen justice,” Bell said. “If the tapes were never released, we would never have known that even that they were victims of brutality or victims of state corporal violence.”

The proposal is expected to draw significant debate as lawmakers weigh privacy and dignity concerns against government transparency and public accountability.