House Bill 315, now signed into law, means law enforcement agencies can charge up to $750 for video, such as body cam, dash cam and jail footage.

Governor Mike DeWine said it's to help with "unfunded burdens," "especially" when it's a "private company seeking to make money off these videos."

"A lot of agencies are getting inundated with these requests," Captain John Marshall with the Niles Police Department said, "and it's really [a] demand on time and personnel."

Niles and Austintown's police departments said they have had internet influencers request high volumes of footage which can be a burden, but admits this law could be abused if not handled properly.

"I can see an agency either cash strapped or just with its own political agenda, wanting to use this house bill in order to dissuade individuals from getting their officers body cam video," Captain Tom Collins with the Austintown Police Department, said. 

Civil Rights Attorney Robert Linneman points out citizens have the same rights as journalists, and if a department charges one person a fee, they could face lawsuits if others don't have to pay them.

That could make it more difficult for anyone to access public records.

"This creates a dramatic change in Ohio's policy of government," Linneman said, "It's troubling that it was carried out without any debate or any research by the legislature and with no public input, and there's little question that this change is going to place government accountability out of reach in a great majority of cases."

He added it could also lead to more civil litigation as a whole. 

"A person who might be seeking information to research their case will simply file a lawsuit instead of paying $750 to obtain the information," he said, "They can get this information if they file a lawsuit. The rules that apply in courts that give access to evidence and information that does not subject a litigant to this same kind of fee. So although a local police department might recover some costs of processing public records or fact requests, they may find that they spend the same money defending lawsuits." 

DeWine said if this has unforeseen consequences, he will work with the general assembly to amend the language.

Linneman said there are other alternatives the government should be exploring, rather than making it more difficult for people to access public records. 

"I think the right solution here is for the legislature to appropriate funds to assist government agencies to perform these functions the people in our state, certainly the journalists in our state, certainly the lawyers in our state believe and have found and have made use of the public records law to to enjoy the transparency that it brings," he said, "It seems to me, the Public Records Act is working, and has worked. People want it to work, and the way to solve the problem of the time and the effort that it takes a government agency to make it work is to is to give them more resources to do that."