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Cleveland Must Balance Transparency, Privacy as it Equips Cops with Cameras

One big debate is how to balance privacy and transparency. Legally, these videos are likely to be considered public records. But it may not be appropriate to make them all public - for example, interviews of sexual assault victims, and activity in private homes.

In public places, the expectation of privacy is lower, but Cleveland State University law professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich says even that may be worth rethinking. He says police see people at their worst. Videos can haunt them indefinitely.

"It may have to be that the state legislature really needs to take a serious look at if they want to craft a specific transparency law to think about how exactly this should work," he said.

Witmer-Rich says more and more communities are deciding the benefits of increased transparency are worth some risks to privacy.

Now Cleveland will have to decide on its own approach to balancing those interests.