Oklahoma City building distrust by not releasing police video of protests

Transparency builds trust. This should be a hallmark of any public agency, most especially law enforcement agencies during these times when Black Lives Matters supporters are exercising their First Amendment rights to protest the troubling death of George Floyd and racially motivated injustice.

Thus, FOI Oklahoma strongly encourages the Oklahoma City Police Department to release video taken from a pole-mounted camera during recent protests. This issue came to light in a story written by Josh Dulaney for The Oklahoman. We agree with what Freedom of Information Oklahoma board member Mark Thomas said in the story: “If law enforcement feels the need to carry a camera in public and video the public, the public ought to have the right to look at it.” 

We don't understand why the Oklahoma City municipal counselor's office deemed the release as not subject to the Open Records Act because the pole-mounted camera is "not attached to a person or vehicle -- police body cameras or dashboard cameras," according to Dulaney's story. Based on a photo by The Oklahoman’s Jordan Green, it's clear a police officer is holding the video camera, and thus it is in his possession. What's the difference between a pole-mounted camera and a camera mounted on a dashboard but not held by an officer? Both are subject to the Open Records Act.

This is not the time to create more distrust of police in our community by stretching the intent of the law. It's time the city and its police department start restoring trust by doing the right thing and releasing video, whether it's on a body, a dashboard, held on a pole or otherwise, that the public has a right to see now, not after a departmental review.