Oklahoma DOC Refuses to Publicly Release Body Camera Footage
Despite spending millions to give guards body cameras, Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections (DOC) will not release footage from the devices to the public. As reported by Oklahoma Watch, the DOC claims that footage recorded within a facility would threaten security by showing the layout and potentially sensitive areas. But, in refusing to divulge audio and video recordings, the DOC is an outlier in Oklahoma, as police departments, sheriff’s offices, and the highway patrol regularly release footage in accordance with the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
The DOC avoids compliance with the act because it is not clearly defined as a law enforcement agency under state law, and a state statute does not specifically include guards in the category of officers whose body camera footage should be publicly available. In February 2025, the agency began allowing recordings to be shared with prosecutors, police, or via a court-ordered subpoena.
Guards in DOC facilities have been using body cameras since October 2024, following a $1.09 million contract with Axon Technologies to buy 1,069 cameras and 142 docking stations. Throughout the following year, a total of 140 prisoners died in state-run facilities in Oklahoma, representing a prison mortality rate that is significantly higher than the national average. In addition to keeping body camera footage confidential, the DOC has also declined to release incident reports for prisoner deaths and violent incidents.
“There’s so little oversight and so little transparency,” Deon Osborne, an independent journalist who received a denial notice for a request for body camera footage from a guard who was fired for unprofessional behavior, told Oklahoma Watch. “Whether you have a loved one inside, or you just believe in human rights, it’s impossible to really know if those human rights are being upheld. And I think every Oklahoman should care about that.”
Sources: Oklahoma Watch, The Oklahoman
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