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AP: Police officer video regularly withheld from public view
By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The video is brief but disturbing: An officer is seen strik- ing an unarmed suspect with his pistol as the man falls into the grass. An autopsy would later show he died from a gunshot to the back of the head.
After the death last July of 26-year-old Daniel Fuller in Devils Lake, North Dako- ta, investigators described the video to his grieving relatives. But for days, weeks and then months, they refused to release it to the family or to the public. They did so only after a prosecutor announced in November that the officer did not intend to fire his gun and would not face criminal charges.
“It took forever for them to release the video because they kept saying it was an on- going investigation,” said Fuller’s older sister, Allyson Bartlett. “I don’t think they wanted pressure from the community.”
Her experience is typical. An investigation by The Associated Press has found that police departments routinely withhold video taken by body-worn and dashboard-mounted cam-
eras that show officer-involved shootings and other uses of force. They often do so by citing a broad exemption to state open records laws — by claiming that releasing the video would undermine an ongoing investigation.
During the last five years, taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to outfit officers’ uniforms and vehicles with cameras and to store the footage they record as evi- dence. Body cameras, in particular, have been touted as a way to increase police transparen- cy by allowing for a neutral view of whether an officer’s actions were justified. In reality, the videos can be withheld for months, years or even indefinitely, the AP review found.
To be sure, some departments voluntari- ly release videos of high-profile incidents, sometimes within days or weeks. They also are forced to share them during civil rights lawsuits or air them when suspects face trial. Many also routinely release videos that show officers in a positive light, such as when they rescue people from accidents, fires and other dangers. But how requests are handled when they are requested by citizens, reporters and
government watchdogs varies widely.
The AP tested the public’s ability to access
police video for Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of open government, by filing open records requests related to roughly 20 recent use-of-force incidents in a dozen states.
They were met with a series of denials and failed to unearth video of a single incident that had not already been released publicly. Some videos could be released in coming months or years once criminal and disci- plinary investigations are concluded. By then, the public interest in knowing what hap- pened may have waned significantly.
In rejecting or delaying the requests, most law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cited exemptions that allow them to keep records of pending investigations secret. One county claimed the exemption would allow it to keep the video of a motorist’s fatal shooting secret forever — even though the investiga- tion has concluded and cleared the deputy involved.
Critics say the exemption is often misap-
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