AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: SEPTEMBER 2017 23 If anyone’s wondering why it seems like so many police officers are worried about their safety on the job these days, just consider the fact that with so many people carrying firearms, you just never really know what you’re dealing with. For instance in Norfolk, Virginia recently, a police officer fatally shot a woman after she shot and wounded her husband at the scene of a car crash. Virginia State Police said that 25-year-old India N. Nelson had been in a domestic dispute with her husband earlier in the day in Norfolk. That evening Nelson and her husband were driving separate cars when they crashed into each other near the Norfolk Naval Station. Both husband and wife are active duty sailors. And it wasn’t until Norfolk police responded and started interview- ing witnesses that Nelson shot and wounded her husband, according to the state police. Officials said a Norfolk police officer then “engaged the woman and returned fire.” Nelson was pronounced dead at the scene. The husband, who remains unidentified, was treated at a hospital and released. Navy spokesman Matthew Allen said Nelson was a nuclear techni- cian assigned to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. And while it seems like surveil- lance cameras are everywhere these days, they frequently fail to produce footage. Kelly Wirfel, a Navy spokes- woman, said gate cameras at one of the main gates into the naval base “did not capture the shooting.” It was unclear from the Associ- ated Press report if the officers involved in then incident were wearing bodycams. Not a happy couple In Michigan there’s a new law which exempts police from releas- ing bodycam footage in certain circumstances. Public Act 85 of 2017 establishes guidelines for retaining and releas- ing recordings where individuals have what’s believed to be “a rea- sonable expectation of privacy.” “Body cameras are useful tools that provide oversight of police activity and increase the public’s trust in law enforcement,” said Rep. Jim Runestad of White Lake, who introduced the bill. “Without a policy regulating body cameras, however, many law enforcement agencies are reluctant to start using them. The guidelines we have established will offer con- sistency among law enforcement agencies across the state, and allow officers to effectively utilize body- worn cameras.” Runestad says obviously there’s a lot of footage that should never be made public for a variety of reasons. “If an elderly lady falls in the shower and police officers respond to provide assistance, recordings made on their body-worn cameras would not be available for public distribution under these rules.” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard is backing the new leg- islation. “Having state guidelines address- ing body-worn cameras, which not only provides accountability for police but also provides privacy for citizens, is vital for the use of this emerging technology,” Bouchard told the Daily Tribune. All that said, “reasonable expec- tation of privacy” is a pretty wide net so it should be useful to see how this plays out going forward. Body cam privacy update WHEREITLEADS, LEADSWILLFOLLOW COMINGTOIACP2017 CONNECT CASES. SOLVE CRIMES FASTER. JOIN US FOR THE UNVEILING AT IACP BOOTH 1337.