POULSBO — The City of Poulsbo has authored a letter aimed at Washington state legislators in support of House Bill 1917, which would place some limits on access to body camera footage.

The letter was signed by Police Chief Alan Townsend, Mayor Becky Erickson, Councilman Jim Henry, and Councilman Ed Stern.

“Ed has been working on it with his involvement with the Association of Washington Cities,” Mayor Becky Erickson said. “Henry signed on because he went to Olympia to testify in support of it.”

The bill regards public access to footage from body cameras worn by police officers.

“City staff, myself and Representative Drew Hansen, the sheriff’s association and a whole group of people have been working to craft legislation regarding body cameras. And it’s struggling,” Erickson said, noting that the bill has received some resistance in Olympia.

“What it says is if police wear cameras, the footage can’t be accessed unless you have a court order, or you are a member of the press, or you are directly involved in the process,” she said. “Blanket public records requests won’t be allowed.

“The reason is, unlike a dashboard camera, body cameras are worn in people’s private spaces. Cops are faced with a lot of things that, in my opinion, should not be subject to public record. They come across traffic accidents with injured people, they interview rape victims, they deal with people who are mentally ill and these cameras are running when this is all going on.”

The bill has proved controversial, creating a debate between transparency in government and what can be reasonably provided. It also questions if the tapes should be available given the rights of victims displayed on them.

“There’s been some push back. People say we are limiting freedoms by this, or stifling people’s right to public records. That’s not true,” Erickson said. “We also want to protect the people that are on the tapes. It’s a balancing act.”

Erickson noted that with current public records request laws, a person can do a blanket request for all footage from body cameras, which poses a couple of problems. One, Erickson said, is that sensitive footage of victims could be taken and placed on the Internet or elsewhere in public view. Two, the requests pose an expensive cost to police departments.

That expense is something Poulsbo faced in 2014 when an activist requested all of its footage from body cameras. When the city realized the immense task at hand, the activist rescinded his request.

“We were going through hours and hours of tapes, the majority of which were traffic stops,” Erickson said. “Then going back and contacting people who were recorded. It was expensive and time consuming.”

That expense could deter cities from using the cameras, which are a beneficial tool, Erickson said.

“Cities are moving away from the cameras because they can’t afford it,” Erickson said. “We have a new tool now that wasn’t available three years ago. It will keep people safe and make cops more accountable. Behavior is better on both sides of the camera. Unfortunately, they get so expensive to operate because of the levels of public records request.”

Erickson also said that the current public records laws were written in the early 1970s, before much of the technology used by police today.

The bill is sponsored by 23rd District representatives Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge, and Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo; as well as Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-37th District, and Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D, 21st District.