Alabama State Senator Merika Coleman, criticized on Wednesday for playing congressional politics for rolling out a body cam bill, said Thursday that she is appealing to request that the state “put more teeth” into a proposal requiring public access to the footage.

Coleman, a Birmingham Democrat and chair of the Alabama Black Caucus, told AL.com that even though her proposed legislation faces an uphill political battle in the supermajority Republican Legislature, she’s still going to introduce it and “champion it, even though you know the odds are stacked against you.”

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, who sponsored the last body cam transparency bill, is accusing Coleman of giving the family of the late Jawan Dallas — whose struggle to access police-worn body cam footage of his July 2 death was well-documented for months — a “false sense of hope or expectations.”

“You don’t tell people who are part of a movement, like my mother and grandparents who fought for civil rights, that we are not going to fight just because the odds are stacked against them,” Coleman said ahead of a 10 a.m. news conference at Government Plaza in Mobile. “No matter whether you have a shot or not, we got to introduce legislation.”

Coleman’s legislation will require public disclosure of police-worn body camera and dashcam footage, an issue that was addressed by the Alabama State Supreme Court in 2021, with an 8-1 ruling, when it determined the footage was exempt from the state’s public records law.

She said the news conference is completely separate from her run for Congress in District 2. The state senator is one of 11 Democratic candidates seeking the nomination on March 5, 2024. Eight Republicans are also vying for the job.

Givan and state Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, whose son – Shomari Figures — is also running for Congress, both said Coleman’s news conference is to boost her political campaign.

“I’m a sitting senator who has served in the Legislature for 21 years and, as a professional, I am able to separate my current political position from what I am running for,” Coleman said, adding that she was inspired to sponsor body cam transparency legislation in the Statehouse from a conversation she had with the Rev. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign, while he was at a rally in support of the Dallas family last month.

The family and their attorneys watched the body cam footage last month, after an investigation was completed into Dallas’ death in which the officers involved were not charged with any crimes. The attorneys have since compared Dallas’ encounter with police to George Floyd, the Black Minneapolis man who was killed by a white police officer in 2020, which ignited nationwide protests over police brutality and racial inequality.

“There are email records of the attorneys for the Dallas family reaching out to all of us, Democrats and Republicans and members of the congressional delegation as well, appealing for us to put more teeth into the body cam legislation,” Coleman said. “I’m the one who showed up.”

Givan’s new legislation

Her legislation be introduced the same time that state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, is introducing HB41, which is an amended version of legislation passed earlier this year – and which became law on Sept. 1.

Givan, who is also running in the congressional race in District 2 next year, criticized Coleman on Wednesday for “capitalizing on the backs of the dead” for holding a news conference Thursday with the Dallas family. The family, for over four months, requested to gain access to the police-worn body cam footage of their son’s death following an interaction with two Mobile police officers on July 2.

Under Givan’s bill, the disclosure of footage from police cameras cannot be delayed more than six months from the date of a request. Her legislation also prohibits law enforcement from denying the release of body-worn or dashboard recordings unless the disclosure would substantially interfere with an ongoing investigation. The law enforcement agency is also required to reassess the necessity of withholding the footage and notify the requestor of the status of withholding it for every 30 days.

State Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, who has over 30 years of law enforcement experience, said he was concerned with any body camera legislation that could impede ongoing investigations.

“I don’t know anyone in a (District Attorney’s) office or in law enforcement who doesn’t want transparency in this area but will stop short of jeopardizing an investigation when doing that,” Treadaway said on Wednesday, adding lawmakers will request legislation get approval from the District Attorney’s Association and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.

‘No teeth’

Coleman said that the recently adopted legislation, which Givan sponsored, has “no teeth.” The new law allows people whose image or voice is subject to body camera footage to file a written request to review it. An attorney, parent, spouse, or another designated representative can also make the request. The agency receiving the request has to either show the video or notify the requestor it was denying the release.

The new law does not require law enforcement give a reason for denying the request.

Givan said that despite Coleman’s “no teeth” comment, she voted for the legislation. Givan also noted that the legislation was important to “get something on the books so we could curate it” under future changes such as HB41.

“She understands how these processes work in the Legisalture,” Givan said.

Givan said that she feels the new law is working, and law enforcement agencies are releasing tapes. She said the legislation that was approved last spring was “difficult” to get approved through the GOP-dominated Legislature, and that the political realities are such that a body cam transparency bill requiring public disclosure doesn’t have a chance of passing.

Givan and State Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, whose son – Shomari Figures – is running in the congressional race – both said Coleman was going against standard protocol by not informing the chief supporter of an issue about her interest in sponsoring new legislation. Figures called it “common courtesy” that lawmakers, by way of past practice, have done for years.

Givan said she would have contact Coleman if the roles were reversed, adding that if she was sponsoring a bill that “was really for the family, she would have done so.”

“I would have said, ‘Merika, this is what I have been doing,’” Givan said, adding that she spoke to the Dallas family attorneys and to Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood about the release of the body cam footage.

“Some things are better done not necessarily blowing it up in the public,” Givan said, adding that legislation can get accomplished by keeping sponsors of an issue aware of what is going on.

Coleman said she’s had many pieces of legislation “co-opted” over the years, such as removing the state tax on groceries which was sponsored and ushered through the legislation process last spring by Republicans.

Coleman said she was responding to written requests from the Dallas family’s attorneys who include Atlanta-based civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, about getting legislation “with more teeth” introduced.

She also challenge lawmakers with concerns about her legislation to consider what other states are doing where there is greater access to body cam footage.

“Body cams, themselves, are paid for by public dollars,” Coleman said. “I would challenge (naysayers) that have an issue with transparency to come to that table. We are lawmakers and we are the folks who go to the public, who trust us enough to vote for us and if there is a concern there, we need to listen to the public … and come up with the solution to the process.”