AUTOMATIC POLICE BODY CAM ANALYSIS.

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View NCGA Bill Details2021
House Bill 937 (Public) Filed Tuesday, May 11, 2021
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS OF POLICE BODY-WORN CAMERA RECORDINGS TO FLAG CERTAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMPROVE OFFICER TRAINING AND TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS.
Intro. by Alexander.

Status: Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action) (May 12 2021)

Bill History:

H 937

Bill Summaries:

  • Summary date: May 11 2021 - View Summary

    Contains whereas clauses. Amends GS 132-1.4A (Law enforcement agency recordings) by doing the following: (1) Defining body-worn camera analytics as respectfulness and de-escalation metrics and reports generated from the processing of audio from body-worn cameras between officers and civilians; flag as a complaint, firearm discharge, death, arrest, or investigation of an officer within a body-worn camera recording; flagging as the process of a natural language processing technology identifying a flag during the review of a body-worn camera recording; and natural language processing as a branch of artificial intelligence that helps computers understand, interpret, and manipulate human language. (2) Requiring that body-worn camera recordings (recordings) be searchable by artificial intelligence to allow automated reviews and body-worn camera analytics (analytics) to be created. (3) Requiring custodial law enforcement agencies to keep flagged recordings for at least two years and prohibiting alteration, distortion, editing, hindrance, obstruction, or manipulation of flagged recordings under any circumstances. (4) Requiring custodial law enforcement agencies to keep analytics for at least 90 days, after which the analytics can be used for training or destroyed. (5) Directing all law enforcement agencies in the state which use body-worn cameras to, by January 1, 2024, implement a natural language processing technology review protocol that can identify flags and do the following: a. Transcribe and make searchable recording audio, b. Use machine learning or similar technology to create daily, weekly, monthly, and annual reports of analytics for each officer and law enforcement agency that must be reviewed by agency managers, and c. Send automatic alerts to law enforcement agency management. (6) Directing law enforcement agencies who use body-worn cameras to conduct, at least quarterly, trainings on incidents or behaviors flagged in recordings when respectfulness and de-escalation drops below the minimum threshold set by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission (Commission) and to report to the Commission, by April 1 of each year, on the previous year’s trainings, corrective action taken in the previous year, and the number of law enforcement interactions that did not meet the minimum standards set by the Commission in the previous two years. (7) Directing the Commission to set the threshold for when a law enforcement agency must take corrective or disciplinary action against a law enforcement officers as a result of flagged recordings and to determine the criteria for respectfulness and de-escalation used by natural language processing technology to identify flags in recordings. Appropriates $3 million in non-recurring funds from the General Fund to the Governor’s Crime Commission in each year of the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium to provide grants to law enforcement agencies for purchasing natural language processing technologies and developing review protocols. Limits these grants to a maximum amount of $100,000 and directs the Governor’s Crime Commission to develop guidelines and procedures for administration and distribution of the grants. The amendments to GS 132-1.4A are effective January 1, 2024, and the appropriation related provisions are effective July 1, 2021.