Last week, District Court Judge Robert LaPointe ordered the Weare Police Department to return a video camera that belonged to a woman who was arrested during a March 2010 traffic stop. Why would the police keep her video camera for roughly a year after dropping charges against her? Because they can, apparently. That needs to change.

Carla Gericke was charged with felony wiretapping for recording Weare police during that traffic stop. The charges were quickly dropped. But the police refused to return her camera. If this were just an isolated case, there might be no need for a new law. But it isn’t.

In Nashua in 2006, police charged 46-year-old Michael Gannon with felony wiretapping for recording officers without their permission. They were on his property, and the recording was done with Gannon’s security cameras. He was charged anyway, and police confiscated his security tapes. Even after the charges were dropped, the police would not return Gannon’s tapes.

Under current law, police can keep your stuff indefinitely, even if you have committed no crime. Attentive legislators have come up with a way to stop this.

House Bill 225, up for a vote in the Senate today, would require law enforcement agencies to return within 21 days the personal property of anyone acquitted of a crime or whose charges were dropped or not prosecuted.

It should not require a law to make police departments return the personal property of innocent people. Sadly, it does.