By Trend News Line 2024-07-01 11:00:00.
about a renewed focus on police accountability and transparency across the United States. The nine shootings involving officers throughout Denver metro stretching from Lakewood to Arapahoe County since April 29 underscored police departments’ differences in their levels of responses to media inquiries and in their policies governing the release of body camera footages.
With each shooting leading to a multi-agency investigation that sometimes takes up to six weeks to complete, individual police departments said they juggle releasing information to the public and maintaining a fair process for those involved. Some, including the families of individuals shot by officers, do not believe the response is clear enough. Police officials said it’s a balancing act.
“We’re talking about officers shooting people in the public,” said Siddhartha Rathod, a civil rights attorney and partner with Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, a law firm that represents the families of individuals injured or killed in shootings. “That’s the public’s documents. The public has a right to those images because the public pays for law enforcement… Without that information, the public is left in the dark.”
“It’s a balancing act,” said Joe Moylan, public information officer for the Aurora Police Department. “It’s providing as much information as we can while also being sensitive to the person involved and their family and treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve. Any time someone loses their life in our community, it’s a tragedy, and we need to be sensitive to that, too.”
Different departments have different policies when it comes to releasing body camera footage. While state law requires that the footage is given to legal teams for investigations and those that have filed complaints of officer misconduct, there are no requirements for releasing the footage directly to the public. Instead, each department follows its own set of policies.
For example, the Denver Police Department held a press conference after three officers shot and killed a woman armed with a knife. The department briefed the media on what occurred and held a follow-up conference after more information was discovered and the body camera footage was reviewed.
In contrast, the Thornton Police Department did not hold a press conference after an incident where officers killed two individuals. Instead, they released a heavily edited body camera footage nearly a month later as part of a “community briefing” on YouTube.
The decision on how these incidents are disseminated to the public lies at the discretion of departments. Despite the varied tactics, officials said they all share the same commitment to transparency.
The Denver, Boulder, and Aurora police departments said getting basic information out on social media is the first step, followed by on-scene briefings conducted by a high-ranking member once the scene has been stabilized. Denver makes videos of the briefings available on social media and holds a follow-up conference with video footage around a week after the incident.
The Aurora Police Department now plans to release a community briefing video explaining the incident and showing parts of the body camera footage within 30 days of the incident, a new priority for the agency after Interim Chief of Police Heather Morris was sworn into office last January.
The deaths of Elijah McClain in Aurora in 2019 and George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 brought about a renewed focus on police accountability and transparency across the United States. The incidents led to changes in policies and procedures within police departments to ensure that the public has access to information about critical incidents involving law enforcement officers..
1. Metro Denver police departments body cam policies
2. Metro Denver law enforcement body camera guidelines.