Recorder Lora Young got approval from the Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen Tuesday to amend the Town of Greeneville’s Public Record Policy, which will now state there is a $100 deposit fee for the request of camera footage.
She stated there has been a significant increase in the last 18 months for requests on video camera footage, which also includes body camera footage from the Police Department. Although the footage is public record, the excessive requests have prompted the discussion with the Open Records Council and there will now be a fee of $100 to receive footage. The request was made due to the amount of time it takes police officers to review the footage and redact personal information like license plates, minors, faces etc.
At the moment, releasing footage to the public can take up to weeks depending on the type of footage and how many people are in it. Young explained it can take hours and hours to redact this information and a new camera system could help with this issue, as that system automatically can blur faces as detected.
