(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis. – When Governor Tony Evers signed Senate Bill 789 into law last year as Wisconsin Act 253, its sponsors promised it would strike a balance between privacy and public access to police body-worn camera footage. In practice, the law has done the opposite. In Kenosha County, it has turned transparency into a luxury item—reserved only for those who can afford to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for access.
Sheriff’s Office: Hundreds For A Narrow Request
Just today, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office billed Kenosha County Eye $300 for bodycam footage tied to an incident involving a Racine County detective. This bill came only after the request was narrowed down to a single deputy and a limited timeframe. Before that, the Sheriff’s Office warned the cost could run into the thousands.
For residents who might want to see how deputies handled an incident in their neighborhood, $300 is not reasonable—it’s prohibitive.
Police Department: Thousands For A Drunk Driving Arrest
The Kenosha Police Department has gone even further. In May, KPD sent a letter demanding $2,724.89 for bodycam footage from a simple OWI arrest. Their claim of 14.25 hours of video requiring redaction works out to nearly $200 per hour—far beyond the $30 an hour estimate lawmakers cited when pushing the bill.
If it costs nearly $3,000 to access bodycam from a drunk driving arrest, what chance does the public have of ever seeing footage from a shooting, a major use-of-force case, or a controversial arrest?
The Ortiz Case: Arrest, Injuries, and No Charges
The danger of this new system is best illustrated by the case of Detective Emil Ortiz, a deputy with the Racine County Sheriff’s Office who lives in Somers.
In April, Kenosha County deputies were dispatched to Ortiz’s home after a domestic disturbance. According to reports, Ortiz was intoxicated and had allegedly punched his wife in the face during an argument. Deputies documented that she had a fat lip, Ortiz’s hands were bloody, and there was blood smeared on the walls of the home.
Ortiz was arrested and booked into the Kenosha County Jail. Deputies recommended charges of battery and disorderly conduct, both with domestic abuse enhancers.
But despite the visible injuries and physical evidence, the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges. Ortiz was placed on paid administrative leave. Two months later, there was another disturbance at his Somers home, and he was again placed on leave. Yet to this day, no criminal charges have ever been filed.
This is exactly the kind of case where body-worn camera footage is essential. The public deserves to see how deputies responded and what they witnessed. Instead, that footage now sits behind a $300 paywall at the Sheriff’s Office, effectively making it inaccessible.
Lawmakers’ Broken Promises
During debate, Sen. Jesse James and Rep. John Spiros promised costs would be minimal. They said redaction would be quick and cheap. But Kenosha’s two largest law enforcement agencies—the Kenosha Police Department and The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office—have shown those promises to be empty. Their agencies are charging as much as they can, daring anyone to challenge them.
The Wisconsin Transparency Project
Experts Saw This Coming
Attorney Tom Kamenick, one of Wisconsin’s leading open records lawyers, warned that giving agencies the power to charge for redactions would gut transparency. He said custodians would “almost always charge every fee they can (and some they can’t).”
Kamenick was right. What was sold as “balance” has become a shield against scrutiny.
Transparency For The Few, Silence For The Rest
Independent outlets like Kenosha County Eye cannot spend thousands of dollars on every request. The Kenosha News, with its shrinking budget, can’t either. And ordinary residents, who already paid for these cameras with their tax dollars, stand no chance.
The result is predictable: fewer requests, fewer stories, and less oversight of the people sworn to protect the public.
The Bottom Line
The police department and Sheriff’s Office are not preserving transparency. They are suffocating it. By slapping massive fees on access, they’ve turned body-worn cameras into locked boxes.
The Ortiz case proves what’s at stake: a deputy accused of punching his wife in the face, visible injuries, blood on the walls, no charges filed—and now video that the public will almost never see.
In Kenosha County, transparency is not a right. It’s a luxury item—and one most citizens will never be able to afford.
A Glimmer Of Hope?
Not every lawmaker is content with the status quo. State Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha) recently acknowledged the flaws in the bill to KCE:
“Thank you for reaching out regarding Senate Bill 789/ Assembly Bill 837. As you know, ensuring access to public records is important to me, and while the amendment offered this session improved upon the limitations of the first iteration of the bill, I believe it is clear that changes need to be made. I suspect in the upcoming session there will be attempts to pass clarifying language to this legislation.”
McGuire’s comments show that some lawmakers recognize the damage Act 253 has caused and are open to fixing it.
If you care about transparency, now is the time to act. Contact your local legislators—Republicans and Democrats alike—and demand changes. Tell them transparency cannot be a luxury item. Tell them accountability should not depend on who can afford to pay.
Click here to find your elected officials.
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18 Responses
The amount of people who will get away with doing illegal activity is going to skyrocket because of this.
If you are a public servant of any kind, your expectations to privacy is and should only be your personal life off the job and in-between developments while on the job or ANY public interaction should be made unedited back to the public and at no charge. But this shows we need to charge the local department for any video footage obtained by local law enforcement agencies as well for privacy, editing, recording as well. No video till pd check clears!
Who the heck would downvote this and why? I’d love to hear the reasoning
…. anyone can stand on the sidewalk or public way and record these instances.
Additionally EVERY WORD can be used against the perpetrators or arrested individuals in court. Nothing should be redacted at all !!!
Isn’t that why we have police body cameras in the first place ????
So nobody can dispute the actual facts of the case ?
Sure a person has to retrieve and isolate the requested footage but redactions should not be allowed or required of the actual on site response of the call.
As the say “ everything you say can be used against you in the court of law”.
It should also say it can be used to expose you when in public. At no cost
Just another example of the boys in blue protecting their own. And that’s a shame for all of the great police officers who have nothing to hide and probably welcome the transparency body cams could provide to the public.
The boys in blue are not friends with you!
Proving once again that Bureaucrats and elected Officials will often turn into Marxist Tyrant Overlords when given the opportunity.
The government doesn’t want eyes on them, especially the Kenosha County Eye. If this tactic is meant to limit transparency, it’s time to replace any elected official pushing such a policy. This is being done to be punitive. Any contenders running against those supporting such a policy should promise voters they will always advocate for free access and transparency.
County Executive. Sheriff. Any Judge that has shown their bias in or out of court.
These people all need to be voted out of office !
But that requires others to STEP UP !!!
Is that YOU ?!?!?
If you EVER Yearned for public office,
NOW IS THE TIME. !!!!!
Top officials have become so power hungry they have lost what there job really is protecting the citizens not each other.
How “the people” have put up with ridiculous record request fees for so long now is utterly baffling to me.
It’s obvious that “customary fees” for this is the spirit of the law.
WHERE have the lawsuits BEEN on this ?????
Good, the cops have a hard enough job. Let’s respect them
Bootlicker, respect is earned.
Shame on the county executive and elected officials, sheriff and mayor and police chief transparency is the most important part of our democracy. The public paid for that equipment. The public pays these employees. Now they want you to pay again. Legislators that voted for it should be voted out of office.
It is ridiculous that we as tax payers pay for the equipment for the officers and then we are told if we want to view the video recording we have to pay a large fee! Talk about bilking us!
Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office is in the pockets of these agencies, The KPD & Sheriff Dept? They all need to go then. Kenosha is such a shit show of corruption.
Some of the comments on this thread are utterly insane.
There are laws that prevent “all words” being released as the release of “all video”. Do you people NOT understand that HIPPA laws exist? How about juveniles? The state protects 16 and under “juveniles” from having their criminal records displayed. How about anyone that is mentioned in passing by anyone in the video/audio being used for radical reasons. ONE case in point, the liberals looking for the Epstein files because they THINK Trump’s in them.(He’s not).
The cost of all this video storage is ENORMOUS. They are NOT talking about gigabytes…but hundreds/thousands of terabytes OR MORE.
You think “the cloud” providers give all that storage for free to local law enforcement? Then you have utter ahole’s of defense attorneys demanding everything and anything that’s recorded to be given to them. So for a request from the jail for their footage, you think ANOTHER attorney wants their client on video walking by the other defense attorney’s client? Of course not. That has to be redacted.
Come on people, this isn’t THAT hard to understand.
Tip. Another democratic blowhard.
FOIA change (fees), I’ll believe it when I see it.