The NYPD is known for many things, but transparency is not one of them. New York's Finest lagged the rest of the country in deploying body-worn cameras department-wide, and their legal team has shown particular zeal in creatively denying requests for body-worn camera footage, pushing back hard and even appealing their litigation losses. As I mentioned in a recent post, the NYPD recently argued in court that body-worn camera videos are exempt from public disclosure for a litany of reasons, some more comical than others. As you read the list, keep in mind that the court didn't buy any of their arguments: (a) they are personnel records, because they might be used to evaluate an officer's job performance, (b) their disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (c) they contain information that is protected under HIPAA, (d) their release could endanger the life safety of anyone in the footage, (e) they are non-final intra-agency materials, and (f) their release would interfere with pending criminal investigations. Nice obstruction! What I want you to take away from this, however, is that denials don't mean game over. If you regularly pursue access to public records you are going to get denied. A lot. It is critical to understand that denial is not the end of the road. It's the beginning of a different stage in the journey. Many people give up in the face of a denial letter - which is probably the point of many such letters. Denials are often written by attorneys and their assertions of exemptions are commonly phrased as if they were facts. But that's not the case. Denial letters are not informing you about the way things actually are. Rather, they are a written legal argument supporting one interpretation of the law. A concrete example might be helpful here. The following is excerpted from an email I received yesterday: "The recording requested, in whole or in part, is by definition not "public record." (O.R.C. 149.43(A)(1)(gg)). The recording is defined as "restricted" pursuant to O.R.C. 149.43(A)(15), as it would disclose the image or identity of a child or information that could lead to the identification of a child who is the primary subject of the recording." How can you argue against that? It's not like you can see the video to evaluate it yourself. And if the law says that stuff is restricted, that's it... right? Wrong. One possible response - which coincidentally happens to be the one I sent - might be to remind the agency of their duty to redact and release under §149.43(B)(1): "If a public record contains information that is exempt from the duty to permit public inspection or to copy the public record, the public office or the person responsible for the public record shall make available all of the information within the public record that is not exempt." In every state I am familiar with, only wholly exempt records may be withheld in their entirety. If a requested public record contains exempt information - say, a driver's license number - only that information should be redacted. The rest must be released if the administrative side of things is in order. From there it seems reasonable to point out that the statute they cited only exempts "any... portion" of the recording that contains or communicates the exempt information. Which means that every other "portion" of the recording should be coming your (well, my... and then your) way. They can't simply say "no" to everything, even though they try to. And from there the tug-of-war moves on to level two. Ideally, that's negotiation. Let's bring this back full circle. The NYPD has been denying requests for body camera footage for years, and despite very recent court rulings in favor of release, the NYPD is clearly in no hurry to turn anything over, still denying requests left and right. That is why I am glad to be able to share this video with you. The footage in this video required a court order to obtain. It shows the earliest days of the NYPD's testing of body-worn cameras. Most of the clips are very brief — the product of officers practicing turning their cameras on and off. The content is generally light, with some real gems mixed in — including one call filmed on the street, and one involuntarily dancing officer. Enjoy. ~~~ Want to help make Real World Police happen and get rewarded for it? Become a supporter on Patreon today and get access to tons of supporter-only Real World Police videos — including the new Roadcam series! https://patreon.com/realworldpolice Prefer PayPal? https://paypal.me/realworldpolice Prefer nothing? That works too. There are more than 700 free videos on enjoy!

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