A King County judge has fined the Seattle
Police Department for withholding records from a television reporter and
criticized a policy that allows police to destroy some dash-camera videos
before they can be released. But he said the policy is legal.
The Seattle Police Department's
video-retention policy — which allows most police dash-camera videos to be kept
secret until destroyed — poses a "Catch 22" and is contrary to the
intent of the state Public Disclosure Act, but doesn't violate it, according to
a King County Superior Court judge.
The ruling comes in a case filed last year by
KOMO-TV reporter Tracy Vedder over access to the videos.
Judge Jim Rogers rejected Vedder's contention
that the department's failure to turn over logs of dash-cam videos when she
asked for them was intentional or malicious.
Still, Rogers fined police for failing to turn
over the logs quickly. The fine is roughly $2,300 — $25 a day for about 94 days
the department delayed, in violation of the Public Disclosure Act, and Rogers
ordered the city to pay Vedder's attorney fees, which will likely be in the
tens of thousands of dollars.
He found the department failed to give Vedder
logs of the videos, which would have been responsive to her request.
But Rogers sided with the Police Department
and its contention that the state's privacy law trumps the Public Disclosure
Act, and found that the city can lawfully delay disclosure of dash-camera
videos until the "final disposition" of any civil or criminal proceedings.
The city has interpreted this to mean it can
withhold the release of the recordings for up to three years — the statute of
limitations on civil lawsuits — which coincides with the department's retention
policy.
The department does retain videos needed for
prosecutions, and those involved in internal-affairs complaints, or when they
are the subject of a lawsuit filed before the three-year deadline.
The upshot has been that the videos can be
legally destroyed by police before they can be released through the Public
Disclosure Act.
Rogers, in his ruling, said Vedder and KOMO-TV
are correct in arguing this poses a "Catch 22" for anyone seeking
dash-camera videos, particularly given that it can take significant time to
make, refine and complete a public-disclosure request.
"The three-year records retention policy
is contrary to the (Public Disclosure Act) as regards to in-car videos,"
Rogers wrote, but he declined to strike down either the policy or the
underlying privacy law because of the conflict.
KOMO attorney Judith Endejan said she believes
Rogers "misinterpreted" the privacy act and said the judge is denying
citizens "access to a vital tool for police accountability."
She noted that the U.S. Department of Justice
relied on videos in finding that the Police Department was routinely and
illegally using excess force. Rogers' ruling will mean less scrutiny when more
is needed, she said.
Assistant City Attorney Mary Perry, who argued
the case for the Police Department, called the judge's ruling a "real
victory." She said that, despite the policy allowing videos to be
destroyed after three years, they are generally kept longer.
As for the retention policy, Perry said, the
city would consider other options if they were feasible. But the sheer number
of recordings — amounting to terabytes of data — makes any retention policy a
challenge.
Vedder eventually received logs of the
dash-camera videos, and KOMO aired stories about alleged police abuses that
turned up on some of the videos.
The city had been waiting for Rogers' ruling
because it is defending similar lawsuits. Perry said the ruling should help the
city in those cases.