By John Sharp
Alabama State Senator Merika Coleman, criticized on Wednesday for playing congressional politics for rolling out a body cam bill, said Thursday that she wants to “put more teeth” into a proposal requiring public access to the footage.
Coleman, a Birmingham Democrat and chair of the Alabama Black Caucus, told AL.com that even though her proposed legislation faces an uphill political battle in the supermajority Republican Legislature, she’s still going to introduce it and “champion it, even though you know the odds are stacked against you.”
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, who sponsored the last body cam transparency bill and will pitch another body cam proposal in the spring, is accusing Coleman of giving the family of the late Jawan Dallas — whose struggle to access police-worn body cam footage of his July 2 death was well-documented for months — a “false sense of hope or expectations.”
“You don’t tell people who are part of a movement, like my mother and grandparents who fought for civil rights, that we are not going to fight just because the odds are stacked against them,” Coleman said. “No matter whether you have a shot or not, we got to introduce legislation.”
Coleman was flanked by supporters of the Dallas family during a news conference outside Government Plaza. The Dallas family nor their attorneys were in attendance.
Coleman’s proposed legislation will require public disclosure of police-worn body camera and dashcam footage, an issue that was addressed by the Alabama State Supreme Court in 2021, with an 8-1 ruling, when it determined the footage was exempt from the state’s public records law.
“Body cameras and dashcams provide accountability in law enforcement,” Coleman said, noting that legislation — if approved — would override the Supreme Court’s decision. “The footage serves as an unbiased, objective account of incidents involving law enforcement. It provides a record that can be crucial in establishing an sequence of events leading to an incident and the footage becomes a pivotal tool for investigators.”
Coleman, during the news conference, did not mention congressional race. She told AL.com earlier in the day that the news conference was completely separate from her political candidacy. The state senator is one of 11 Democratic candidates seeking the nomination on March 5, 2024. Eight Republicans are also vying for the job.
Givan and state Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, whose son – Shomari Figures — is also running for Congress, both said on Wednesday that Coleman’s news conference was to boost her political campaign.
No other state lawmaker was at the news conference, and Alabama State Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said he was unaware of it. He said that as a common courtesy, state lawmakers ask the chair of the Black Caucus to give members advance notice about news conferences that are happening which are focused on introducing legislation.
Coleman later showed AL.com an email she sent to her colleagues on Wednesday letting them know about the news conference and to assure them that it was not a campaign event.
“I’m a sitting senator who has served in the Legislature for 21 years and, as a professional, I am able to separate my current political position from what I am running for,” Coleman said, adding that she was inspired to sponsor body cam transparency legislation in the Statehouse from a conversation she had with the Rev. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign, while he was at a rally in support of the Dallas family last month.
The Dallas family and their attorneys were able to view the body cam footage last month, after an investigation was completed into Dallas’ death in which the officers involved were not charged with any crimes.
The attorneys have since compared Dallas’ encounter with police to George Floyd, the Black Minneapolis man who was killed by a white police officer in 2020, which ignited nationwide protests over police brutality and racial inequality.
“There are email records of the attorneys for the Dallas family reaching out to all of us, Democrats and Republicans and members of the congressional delegation as well, appealing for us to put more teeth into the body cam legislation,” Coleman said. “I’m the one who showed up.”
Givan’s new legislation
Coleman’s legislation be introduced the same time that state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, is introducing HB41, an amended version of legislation passed earlier this year – and which became law on Sept. 1.
Givan, who is also running in the congressional race in District 2 next year, criticized Coleman on Wednesday for “capitalizing on the backs of the dead” for holding a news conference Thursday with the Dallas family. The family, for over four months, requested to gain access to the police-worn body cam footage of their son’s death following an interaction with two Mobile police officers on July 2.
Under Givan’s bill, the disclosure of footage from police cameras cannot be delayed more than six months from the date of a request. Her legislation also prohibits law enforcement from denying the release of body-worn or dashboard recordings unless the disclosure would substantially interfere with an ongoing investigation. The law enforcement agency is also required to reassess the necessity of withholding the footage and notify the requestor of the status of withholding it for every 30 days.
Coleman said she felt six months was too long, and her bill requires the release of the recording within 30 days.
She said it was too long of a wait for the Dallas family and the family of Steve Perkins, who was shot and killed by a Decatur police officer, to view body cam footage of their deadly encounters with police.
Coleman’s legislation also gives someone who requests for the release of a recording, and who is denied access by law enforcement, to file a petition to the circuit court. A judge could then uphold the denial “only if the release would substantially interfere with an ongoing investigation.”
Givan said there needs to be enough time to allow for an investigation to take place.
“You cannot usurp an investigation and she should know that,” Givan said. “You cannot demand someone to automatically turn over a body cam. You have individuals on that video who may have been filmed, and you want to make sure there is no tainting of the evidence.”
State Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, who has over 30 years of law enforcement experience, said he was concerned with any body camera legislation that could impede ongoing investigations.
“I don’t know anyone in a (District Attorney’s) office or in law enforcement who doesn’t want transparency in this area but will stop short of jeopardizing an investigation when doing that,” Treadaway said on Wednesday, adding lawmakers will request legislation get approval from the District Attorney’s Association and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
‘No teeth’
Coleman said that the recently adopted legislation, which Givan sponsored, has “no teeth.” The new law allows people whose image or voice is subject to body camera footage to file a written request to review it. An attorney, parent, spouse, or another designated representative can also make the request. The agency receiving the request has to either show the video or notify the requestor it was denying the release.
The new law does not require law enforcement give a reason for denying the request.
Givan said that despite Coleman’s “no teeth” comment, she voted for the legislation. Givan also noted that the legislation was important to “get something on the books so we could curate it” under future changes such as HB41.
“She understands how these processes work in the Legislature,” Givan said.
Givan said that she feels the new law is working, and law enforcement agencies are releasing tapes. She said the legislation that was approved last spring was “difficult” to get approved through the GOP-dominated Legislature, and that the political realities are such that a body cam transparency bill requiring public disclosure doesn’t have a chance of passing.
Givan and State Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, whose son – Shomari Figures – is running in the congressional race – both said Coleman was going against standard protocol by not informing the chief supporter of an issue about her interest in sponsoring new legislation. Figures called it “common courtesy” that lawmakers, by way of past practice, have done for years.
Givan said she felt it was “total disrespect” to Vivian Figures for her to hold the news conference in Mobile.
Givan said she would have contact Coleman if the roles were reversed, adding that if she was sponsoring a bill that “was really for the family, she would have done so.”
“I would have said, ‘Merika, this is what I have been doing,’” Givan said, adding that she spoke to the Dallas family attorneys and to Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood about the release of the body cam footage.
“Some things are better done not necessarily blowing it up in the public,” Givan said, adding that legislation can advance through the legislative process by keeping sponsors of an issue aware of what is going on.
Coleman said she’s had many pieces of legislation “co-opted” over the years, such as removing the state tax on groceries which was sponsored and ushered through the legislation process last spring by Republicans. Givan, though, said that Democrats have not co-opted legislation from each other.
Coleman said she is responding to written requests from the Dallas family’s attorneys who include Atlanta-based civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, about getting legislation “with more teeth” introduced.
She also challenged lawmakers with concerns about her legislation to consider what other states are doing where there is greater access to body cam footage.
“Body cams, themselves, are paid for by public dollars,” Coleman said. “I would challenge (naysayers) that have an issue with transparency to come to that table. We are lawmakers and we are the folks who go to the public, who trust us enough to vote for us and if there is a concern there, we need to listen to the public … and come up with the solution to the process.”