Ohio Cops Are Reading the Body Camera Fee Law Wrong.

Send us Fan MailGarrettsville PD billed me $225 for body camera footage. Their own CAD records show approximately 57 minutes of combined on-scene time across both incidents. Ohio Revised Code 149.43(B)(1) caps body camera fees at $75 per hour of video produced — not per hour of labor, not per hour of staff time. Per hour of video produced. At that rate, 57 minutes of footage has a maximum lawful fee of about $71.25. I was charged $225.Before anything else: the officers who worked these calls did their jobs right. A noise complaint resolved with a warning. A welfare check that got someone to a hospital. No problem with any of that. This is a records and transparency question only.I paid the $225 anyway — I'm not letting a fee dispute be the reason this footage sits in a drawer. I filed two challenge letters on July 19 contesting the exemption basis and the rate calculation. On July 21 I sent a formal inquiry to the Ohio Attorney General's Sunshine Laws unit asking one question: does $75 per hour mean per hour of footage length or per hour of labor? No Ohio court has answered that yet. This law took effect April 2025.The ACLU of Ohio challenged an identical fee in the Village of Brewster on the same grounds. NBC4 Columbus reported in October 2025 that legal experts identified this as a statewide misreading of the statute. The footage is paid for. The challenges are active. The AG has been notified.When this gets answered, you'll see it here first.PRR filed under Ohio Revised Code 149.43.Pro-Police. Not Pro-Corruption.Be loud. Be heard. Shake the system until the truth falls out.Support the showVisit: https://www.liinks.co/the.infamous.exchief