Let’s open a video window to the county courthouse

I remember the first time I covered a meeting of the Prince William County Planning Commission.

The body, appointed by members of the Board of County Supervisors, meets regularly and is tasked with making recommendations to the Supervisors on land-use matters. Putting simply, if a large development like a neighborhood of homes or a large shopping mall is built, plans for the new development have most likely passed through the Planning Commission.

Back at my first meeting, I remember standing in the atrium of the county’s government center, just outside of the room where the commissioners were holding court. I was surrounded by residents lined up to speak to the commission in what must have been a contentious case (I’m sorry, but I don’t remember the exact case before the commission that night).

Looking up at a TV screen hanging on the wall, I could hear what the commissioners were saying, but I couldn’t see them. “Where’s the video,?” I asked. I had covered countless meetings of the Board of County Supervisors, and there was always audio and video of those meetings.

Just this past week, all of these years later, the county announced, starting next month, it would begin providing full video coverage of the Planning Commission meetings — both audio and video — and making it available to the public during the scheduled meeting time, and on-demand on the county’s website, the following day.

It’s the same luxury afforded to the Board of County Supervisors, and we here at Potomac Local News couldn’t be happier. This speaks volumes for the county as it shows its residents it’s taking an important step forward in transparency.

For reporters like me who often stream multiple meetings at once just to keep a close eye on the community we serve, having this content online makes my job so much easier.

During the coronavirus pandemic, we saw public bodies shift their meetings wholly online on streaming video platforms like Zoom. As the pandemic subsided, we’ve seen a welcomed return to in-person meetings.

However, not everyone can make the in-person meeting, and the county can and should do more with streaming video.

When I look toward the county’s courthouse, where justice is doled out on a daily basis, there is no video window into the very public operation that happens there on a daily basis. And, according to Sheriff Glen Hill, there has been zero discussion about adding video cameras to courtrooms for video steaming.

The court, like so many others across the U.S., has already adopted the use of streaming video technology. A Zoom-like system is used in both the courtroom and jails, allowing the judge to speak to inmates behind bars, saving on the time and expense of transporting the prisoner to the courthouse to be arraigned.

While the public deserves to know what happens inside the courtroom and, just like any Board of County Supervisors or Planning Commission meeting, can come and sit in person to view the proceedings, adding video would go a long way in making even more fo the operations of local government more accessible and transparent in a post-pandemic era.

Uriah Kiser, a 35-year resident of Northern Virginia, is the founder and publisher of Potomac Local News.