Austin, Texas, police vow timely release of sensitive body-cam videos

July 23 – Austin, Texas police announced Friday that they would post videos of officers’ body cameras within 10 business days of incidents that resulted in serious injury or death, up from 60 days of a policy on which there were often delays.

A Reuters article earlier this month detailed how, since Austin issued a 60-day release policy last year, only one body camera video was released on time – in a non-fatal police shootout. After the deadline, footage of three fatal police shootings was released. The department did not release a video of at least 10 incidents of violence during the Black Lives Matter protests last year. Continue reading

In a statement Friday, Austin police promised to release footage within 10 working days, stressing that they were committed to building trust in the community.

“The goal is to get video footage of critical incidents publicly released in a timely manner using a streamlined process,” said the Austin PD.

Joseph Chacon, the interim police chief of Austin, had told Reuters that there were legitimate reasons for delays in the release of videos, including insufficient resources for the time-consuming process of preparing the footage for release. He said he wanted to reduce turnaround time by stop editing videos and instead posting near-raw footage.

His department’s statement Friday did not include any information on whether that would be the case or how the Austin police would meet the much tighter deadline.

In the United States, where a complex thicket of laws makes public access to body camera footage difficult, activists have urged law enforcement agencies to post videos to increase transparency and accountability in policing. Continue reading

Civil rights activists who urged Austin police to post videos quickly did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer, editing by Donna Bryson and Sonya Hepinstall

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