North Carolina Police Dash Cam Footage
July 2, 2018 6:42 AM Subscribe
Yesterday, I was issued a citation by a police officer in Matthews, NC. He claims he has footage of me running a stop sign. I didn't, but that is besides the point. Does anyone know what it takes for a citizen to view this footage in North Carolina?
HB 9782 is the controlling state statute, which declares that police recordings are not public records, but can be disclosed to those recorded:
posted by holgate at 7:22 AM on July 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
If you file a complaint and challenge the ticket in court, like this guy did in Vermont, you may be able to get a copy of the dashcam video. Have no idea how this translates to North Carolina except that police are unreliable witnesses everywhere. If the department refuses, or plays hardball in some way, you better have a lawyer, and also be prepared for a traffic court judge to not care very much about wasting a bunch of time on a ticket for a rolling stop or whatever.
posted by dis_integration at 7:23 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 7:23 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Word if warning: In some jurisdictions not coming to a full stop us enough. If the footage shows you briefly braking and the driving on, that enough.
Dashcam should be public record. Often they're not.
Can you afford one of those traffic court lawyers who advertise on TV? They've been down this road before.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 8:50 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Dashcam should be public record. Often they're not.
Can you afford one of those traffic court lawyers who advertise on TV? They've been down this road before.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 8:50 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
When I went to court in NY over a speeding ticket, I asked for items like this (but not this) in discovery. They dropped my case rather than produce the information.
Plead not guilty and ask for a court date. Then contact the local da and ask that the cam footage be preserved as part of discovery.
posted by AugustWest at 9:12 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Plead not guilty and ask for a court date. Then contact the local da and ask that the cam footage be preserved as part of discovery.
posted by AugustWest at 9:12 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
The ticket should indicate whether the cop was NC Highway Patrol, Mecklinberg Cty Sheriff, or Matthews PD, if you don't know already.
Are you a local to Matthews, or NC in general? If you have out-of-state plates, you could've been targeted by a predatory city cop to squeeze a little money out of you. Matthews has a population under 30,000, so fleecing passers-by is a common-enough revenue source for such towns.
Here's a bit about public records law and requests at the Mecklinberg Cty website.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:58 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Are you a local to Matthews, or NC in general? If you have out-of-state plates, you could've been targeted by a predatory city cop to squeeze a little money out of you. Matthews has a population under 30,000, so fleecing passers-by is a common-enough revenue source for such towns.
Here's a bit about public records law and requests at the Mecklinberg Cty website.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:58 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
same thing as everywhere in the USA, ask for a court date request video, show it to judge, done. you don't need a stinking lawyer.
posted by patnok at 5:03 PM on July 2, 2018
posted by patnok at 5:03 PM on July 2, 2018
I am a criminal defense attorney in North Carolina. As such, I have handled a great deal of traffic tickets.
Your court date is probably an administrative traffic day. That means that there will be no officers in court and that having a trial is impossible. You will have to go to that administrative traffic day and tell the assistant district attorney that you would like to have a trial. In my district we actually have an ADA who will dismiss rolling stops because she doesn't like them. Maybe you will get lucky. Otherwise, the case will be continued to the officer's court date and you will be able to have a trial on that date. Once that date is established, you can file a subpoena with the clerk's office. You will want to check the "produce and permit" box and then describe what you want the officer to bring in the space below.
If the officer shows up with the footage, the ADA should let you watch it before your trial. Demand that you be allowed to. If the officer shows up without the footage, then you will want to ask the officer on cross-examination whether he had a working camera in his car that day and ask him why he did not bring it with him to court. Your closing argument at that point should center around there literally being video of the subject of this dispute and to make a finding beyond a reasonable doubt without viewing that evidence would be inappropriate.
There is a really good chance that at some point the ADA is going to offer to reduce the charge to improper equipment. This is a non-moving violation and is a common compromise offered by DA offices around the state. If you agree to that, you will not get any points against your driver's license or your insurance. However, it will cost you 238-263 dollars. You might get this offer on the administrative court date or on your trial date. Decide in advance if you want to accept that offer.
posted by flarbuse at 1:02 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
Your court date is probably an administrative traffic day. That means that there will be no officers in court and that having a trial is impossible. You will have to go to that administrative traffic day and tell the assistant district attorney that you would like to have a trial. In my district we actually have an ADA who will dismiss rolling stops because she doesn't like them. Maybe you will get lucky. Otherwise, the case will be continued to the officer's court date and you will be able to have a trial on that date. Once that date is established, you can file a subpoena with the clerk's office. You will want to check the "produce and permit" box and then describe what you want the officer to bring in the space below.
If the officer shows up with the footage, the ADA should let you watch it before your trial. Demand that you be allowed to. If the officer shows up without the footage, then you will want to ask the officer on cross-examination whether he had a working camera in his car that day and ask him why he did not bring it with him to court. Your closing argument at that point should center around there literally being video of the subject of this dispute and to make a finding beyond a reasonable doubt without viewing that evidence would be inappropriate.
There is a really good chance that at some point the ADA is going to offer to reduce the charge to improper equipment. This is a non-moving violation and is a common compromise offered by DA offices around the state. If you agree to that, you will not get any points against your driver's license or your insurance. However, it will cost you 238-263 dollars. You might get this offer on the administrative court date or on your trial date. Decide in advance if you want to accept that offer.
posted by flarbuse at 1:02 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks, that was some good information.
posted by zzazazz at 10:16 AM on July 5, 2018
posted by zzazazz at 10:16 AM on July 5, 2018
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