Wyoming Police Body Camera Laws: W.S. 16-4-203 Access

Wyoming has no law requiring police to wear body cameras, and the one statute addressing footage that does exist, W.S. 16-4-203(d)(xviii), makes bodycam video closed by default, with release beyond a narrow mandatory category left to the discretion of the agency that holds it.

This guide is part of our Police Bodycam Laws by State series.

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Wyoming law governing police body cameras: the absence of a use mandate, the W.S. 16-4-203(d)(xviii) access framework for peace officer recordings, and the 2021 legislative effort to change it. It does not address a civilian's right to record law enforcement, which is covered separately in our guide to recording laws.

Does Wyoming require police to wear body cameras?

No. Wyoming has no statute requiring a police department, sheriff's office, or the Wyoming Highway Patrol to equip officers with body cameras. Whether an agency buys cameras, and its rules for when an officer must activate one, is a decision made locally by each department, often shaped by budget and available grant funding rather than by any state requirement. Wyoming's one dedicated statute on this subject, W.S. 16-4-203(d)(xviii), does not create a mandate to use cameras at all. It only addresses what happens to a recording once one exists: who can see it, and under what circumstances the agency holding it may release a copy. An agency that never buys a camera has nothing to disclose and violates no Wyoming statute by not having one.

Is Wyoming bodycam footage a public record?

Not by default. Wyoming's Public Records Act generally presumes government records are open, but W.S. 16-4-203(d)(xviii) singles out "information obtained through a peace officer recording" for the opposite treatment. Subsection (d) provides that the custodian "shall deny the right of inspection" of the records it lists unless otherwise provided by law, so for a peace officer recording denial is the starting point and disclosure is the exception. W.S. 16-4-201(a)(xi) defines a peace officer recording as any audio or video data recorded by a peace officer that is provided to or used by the officer in performing official business and designed to be worn on the officer's body or attached to a vehicle the officer uses, a definition that covers both body cameras and dash cameras. The custodian must allow inspection in only one circumstance: to law enforcement personnel or public agencies conducting official business, or under a court order. The remaining categories of access, including access by the person actually shown in the footage, are left to the custodian's judgment rather than guaranteed by statute, and a request that fits none of the listed categories must be denied.

When can the public see Wyoming bodycam footage?

Beyond the mandatory law-enforcement and court-order access, W.S. 16-4-203(d)(xviii)(B) lists four situations in which a custodian, meaning the police chief, sheriff, or other agency head holding the recording, may choose to allow inspection: to the person in interest, meaning the subject of the recording; if the footage involves an incident of deadly force or serious bodily injury as defined in W.S. 6-1-104(a)(x); in response to a complaint filed against law enforcement personnel, if the custodian determines that inspection would not be contrary to the public interest; or in the interest of public safety generally. None of these four grounds obligates release, and the statute gives a requester no deadline by which a discretionary decision must be made. The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, the Wyoming Press Association, and the ACLU of Wyoming all negotiated and supported this framework when Senate File 32 passed in 2017, but Wyoming lawmakers have since said the resulting statute leaves the outcome of any given request almost entirely up to the individual custodian.

The push to open Wyoming's bodycam law

In 2021, Representative Karlee Provenza of Laramie introduced House Bill 213, Disclosure of peace officer recordings, to set consistent statewide standards for tracking and releasing records of police conduct, standards Provenza said did not otherwise exist. The bill was prompted partly by the case of David Cain, a 36-year-old Platte County man killed during a law enforcement response to a domestic dispute in April 2020. Cain's family member, Salvador Jimenez, testified that law enforcement agencies had "made it a game," going back and forth with the family for weeks over access to body camera footage of the encounter. Wyoming Highway Patrol Colonel Kebin Haller opposed the bill, arguing that releasing footage before a case concluded could create a "public trial" without the due process protections a formal proceeding provides. House Bill 213 never received a committee hearing; it died without a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. No comparable bill has passed in any session since, so W.S. 16-4-203(d)(xviii) remains in the form Senate File 32 gave it in 2017, and whether a Wyoming family can see footage of a fatal encounter still depends on the discretion of the agency that recorded it.

Is it illegal to record police in Wyoming?

That is a separate question from the one this page addresses. Wyoming generally recognizes a person's right to record an on-duty officer performing public duties in a public place. For a full explanation of that right and how it differs from the rules on police-generated bodycam footage discussed here, see Is It Illegal to Record Someone?

More Wyoming Laws

• Wyoming Data Privacy Laws
• Wyoming Drone Laws
• Wyoming Recording Laws