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The NYPD might want to have an internal discussion on how to better meet the demands of press when it comes to body cam video footage. In a lawsuit by a New York news outlet against the department, it has been revealed that the NYPD charged a 36,000 “copying fee” before handing off the video.

In April 2015, the NY1 network filed a Freedom of Information Act request for raw video footage connected to the department’s body camera program between 2014 and 2015. In August, police authorities made an agreement to review and release the requested video but demanded that NY1 pay a $36,000 “copying fee” first. NY1 filed an appeal over the fee and was turned down once again by the department’s legal matters section.

More from the New York Post:

NY1 is suing the NYPD over access to 190 hours of footage from the body-camera pilot program — because the department wants the news channel to pay $36,000 for just a sampling of what the cameras have recorded.

A reporter for the cable-TV news station sent a Freedom of Information Law request to the NYPD’s legal bureau last April for unedited video files for a total of five weeks in 2014 and 2015.

The NYPD said it could provide only redacted clips from the cameras, at a cost of $36,000.

NY1 balked, saying the charge was “excessive” and “a bar to public access,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

Reporter Courtney Gross wrote to the NYPD that “keeping the footage ‘under a cloak of secrecy’” thwarts efforts to foster better relations between civilians and police.

The department is holding firm to its stance, stating that it will look over the complaint once they’ve been served with papers.

Photo: WENN