Competing Bills Aim To Regulate Michigan Police Body Cameras

LANSING (AP) - State lawmakers are looking at how to regulate the use of body cameras by police in Michigan as more agencies across the country equip their officers with the devices.

One bill currently in the state House would require local police to use body cameras.

Another would prohibit the release of certain video from the cameras, making most footage taken in places defined as private exempt from disclosure under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

President Barack Obama asked Congress last year for funding to buy 50,000 body cameras for police to wear and record their interactions with the public. The request followed the shooting death of Michael Brown by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Grand Rapids is buying 200 body cameras for police. Some officers in Detroit are testing cameras.

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