BOISE - Idaho's House has advanced a proposal that would implement statewide retention policies for law enforcement body camera footage.
House members on Tuesday approved sending HB 499 to the Senate with just three lawmakers voting against.
In Idaho, individual law enforcement agencies decide whether or not they want to implement body-worn cameras because there is no statewide policy on the practice. This has sparked debate over the best guidelines on retention.
HB 499 would mandate that recordings with evidentiary value would have to be retained for at least 200 days from the date the recording was made. Recordings with no evidentiary value would be retained for 60 days.
County officials say the policy is needed because the costs of storing vast amounts of police video footage can be crippling for some local jurisdictions.
