RALEIGH — Some North Carolina lawmakers agreed on Thursday to add city managers to the list of people who would be allowed to view footage from police body cameras or dashcams, but excluded city council members, saying they didn’t need to be in the know and perhaps couldn’t be trusted to keep the information to themselves.

Under legislation that went into effect last fall, law enforcement video is not public record, but the family of someone who has been injured or killed at the hands of police may view it, while other members of the public may ask a judge to release it. Police departments may also use the footage for training and investigations.

The House voted overwhelmingly to tweak the law to expand footage access to city managers, who usually help administer municipal police departments. The managers would have to sign confidentiality agreements about the recordings.

But when it came to giving that same access to the city council — even with the same signed non-disclosure statements — House members voted no. Rep. Bill Brawley, a Mecklenburg County Republican who sponsored the amendment, said the nature of politics means some people in elected bodies would be apt to disclose the content of the videos.

“Political people with an ax to grind — whether they are strong police supporters or not — are going to go to the press and hold a press conference and say, ‘I watched the video’” and then offer an opinion, Brawley said, adding that there is no need for councilors to see the footage because they are “not in the chain of command for investigations or prosecution of a legal matter.”

The amendment to exclude city councilors passed 59-57. Influencing Thursday’s debate was the memory of riots that broke out in Charlotte in September after a police officer fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott. Lawmakers had passed a bill shielding the release of the videos months before the riots, but the law went into effect shortly afterward.

Democratic Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte urged lawmakers to pass the unamended bill, which would have allowed access for city councilors if the city manager recommended it and a majority of council members agreed. Carney argued that the Charlotte City Council would have been better able to calm the public in September if members had been allowed to see the footage before police released it.

“What happened in Charlotte, God forbid that happens to any other city or town in the state,” Carney said, “but we need to be prepared.”

Rep. Kelly Alexander, another Charlotte Democrat, asked colleagues to think the best of local officials.

“I have to believe that the vast majority of those people who have been elected to positions … are going to be honest people, and if they say they are not going to disclose, then they don’t disclose,” he said.

But Republican Rep. Scott Stone, a former Charlotte mayoral candidate, said an elected official’s take on what they saw on the video could prejudice a jury pool or fan the flames of discord.

The amended measure, which also clarified how police could use video footage, now goes to the Senate for consideration after the House approved it 110-6. The bill was among about 20 bills that cleared at least one chamber Thursday before a self-imposed deadline designed to weed out legislation lacking support for the remainder of the two-year session.

City council members excluded

Gary D. Robertson

Associated Press