Bexar County Sheriff's Office Policy Manual - Body Worn Camera Video Release Policy PDF

BEXAR COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE POLICY MANUAL Original Date Effective Date Chapter Number March 4, 2022 August 26, 2022 Forty-Four Appendix A Subject Office Bexar County Funded Body Worn Camera Critical Sheriff’s Admin/Pa...

BEXAR COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE POLICY MANUAL Original Date Effective Date Chapter Number March 4, 2022 August 26, 2022 Forty-Four Appendix A Subject Office Bexar County Funded Body Worn Camera Critical Sheriff’s Admin/Patrol/CID/SERT Incident Video Release Policy References Enclosures Occupations Code §1701.661 Bexar County Funded Body Worn Camera Critical Incident Video Release Policy Distribution Supersedes Review Pages All Sheriff’s Employees New Policy January 1, 2024 4 Approved by: Javier Salazar, Bexar County Sheriff 44A.01 POLICY On Tuesday, December 7, 2021 in open session, the Bexar County Commissioner’s Court consisting of the Honorable County Judge Nelson Wolff, the Honorable Pct. 1 County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, the Honorable Pct. 2 County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, the Honorable Pct. 3 County Commissioner Trish DeBerry, and the Honorable Pct. 4 County Commissioner Tommy Calvert passed a vote that requires the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and all other Bexar County Law Enforcement agencies to adopt and abide by the attached Bexar County Funded Body Worn Camera Critical Incident Video Release Policy. Individually elected office holders in the State of Texas are responsible for writing and maintaining their office’s policies. In addition, State statutes place decisions on video collection, storage, and release in the hands of the law enforcement agency and not the Commissioner’s Court. According to Commissioner’s Court, this policy must be adopted and followed by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in order to receive current and future funding for the BCSO Body Worn Camera Program. Funding for additional staffing, training, and technology upgrades were authorized on February 8, 2022, by Commissioner’s Court. 44A.02 PURPOSE The BCSO Body Worn Camera Program is a program that, first and foremost, records and preserves visual and auditory evidence in a manner beyond the capability of the human senses and memory. As evidence that is collected and preserved for the purpose of conducting criminal and/or administrative investigations and serves as evidence to be introduced in court hearings or trials, the collection, storage, and release of Body Worn Camera (BWC) is controlled by State statutes. Limited discretion for the release of video that depicts events under active criminal or administrative investigation is statutorily vested in the head of the law enforcement agency that captures said video. This discretion for the release of video that depicts events under active criminal or administrative investigation is limited to those instances in which the law enforcement agency determines that complete or partial video release serves a greater law enforcement purpose. While the spirit of said discretionary release was originally intended to cover such instances as releasing a suspect or victim still for the purposes of public identification, etc. the Bexar County Commissioners have decided for the Sheriff that “law enforcement purpose” includes satisfying public demand for video release. The Sheriff recognizes that in addition to this primary objective of evidence collection and preservation the BWC program can also serve the public interest, contribute to transparency and strengthen the bond of trust between the BCSO and the citizenry. And in order to satisfy the Bexar County Commissioner’s explicit requirement for funding, the Sheriff accepts the County Commissioner’s definition of law enforcement purpose as it relates to the following attached County policy. 1 44A.03 DEFINITIONS A. BODY WORN CAMERA (BWC) - Authorized recording device issued by the Sheriff’s Office that is capable of recording, or transmitting to be recorded remotely, video or audio, to be worn on clothing or as glasses, for performing official duties. B. PRIVATE SPACE - A location in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, including a person’s home. C. RECORDING - Any video/audio file created from a BWC. D. SIGNIFICANT EVENTS – Law enforcement encounters that generate compelling public interest excluding deputy involved shootings, use of force involving serious bodily injury or death, and custodial deaths. Significant events will be posted on the appropriate social media platform. 44A.04 BCSO TIMEFRAMES FOR PUBLIC RELEASE OF VIDEO EVIDENCE A. Video evidence will be released in accordance with any applicable statute and this Chapter (see Chapter 44.09 Request for Copies). B. The Sheriff’s Office will release, whenever possible, video evidence depicting significant events, which the public has a compelling interest to view, within 30 days of the event. C. It is the objective of the Sheriff’s Office to release video evidence depicting the following within 10 days of the event: 1. Deputy involved shootings – Use of a firearm by a deputy that causes serious bodily injury or death; 2. Use of force – Use of force by a deputy that results in serious bodily injury or death; 3. Custodial Deaths - Deaths of detainees, arrestees, and inmates while in the custody of the BCSO subject to any restrictions in 44.09 (D). 44A.05 BCSO SPECIFIC CHANGES TO THE RECOMMENDED COUNTY POLICY ON RELEASE In order to remain in compliance with State statutes and best practices, the following changes to the attached recommended Bexar County Commissioners Court policy will apply: A. The specific events that qualify for a 10 day release timeframe are individually enumerated and not subject to a single definition. B. Video evidence depicting deceased individuals will only be released upon written authorization from their next of kin or other authorized representative. No portion of said video shall be released without written authorization as described above (Occupations Code §1701.661 Release of Information Recorded by Body Worn Camera); 2 C. Any reference to a 60 day timeframe will be replaced with a 10 day timeframe once the following has occurred: 1. Staffing and technology upgrades are in place; 2. Training of staff is completed. D. Video evidence depicting events that are subject to a 10 day release timeframe and where domestic violence is involved or suspected will be withheld unless the Sheriff determines its release serves a law enforcement purpose; E. Video evidence depicting events that are subject to a 10 day release timeframe will be posted on the appropriate social media platform, the Sheriff may post video evidence depicting significant events subject to a 30 day release timeframe there as well; F. Video evidence depicting images of juveniles or of any juvenile’s personal information shall not be released unless its release is in accordance with State statute; G. Any portion of video evidence that depict a private space as defined by applicable law will not be released. 44A.06 VIDEO EVIDENCE RELEASE PREPARATION A. The BCSO will prepare all video evidence for public release within the timeframes indicated in Chapter 44 Body Worn Camera and Digital Media Evidence and this appendix subject to the available staffing and technology necessary to properly prepare said recordings. All requests properly submitted by the public for release are considered equally important to the individual requestors and therefore the BCSO will not prioritize the preparation of one video evidence recording over another unless required by law. B. Once video evidence has been approved for release by the Sheriff, the BCSO will notify the District Attorney, the County Manager, and any deputies depicted in the video no less than 24 hours prior to the release. The County Manager may make any additional notifications that they deem necessary. 44A.07 REQUEST FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL DECISION In the event that the Sheriff determines that video evidence should be withheld from public release, the following procedure will apply: A. The BCSO, upon receiving a written request for video evidence that at the time cannot be publicly released and that it wishes to withhold, must ask for a decision from the Texas Attorney General (AG)- via the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office- about whether the information can be withheld (Texas Government Code §552.301 Request for Attorney General Decision); B. The Sheriff will seek clarification from the AG (and not the District Attorney) on any decision to delay release beyond 10 days for video evidence depicting events subject to the 10 day release timeframe; 3 C. Any resulting AG decision to withhold video evidence will be posted on the appropriate social media platform; D. Video evidence that has been withheld per the AG’s decision shall be released as soon as the reason for the delay has been resolved. Such withheld video evidence will be reassessed every 30 days to determine if they can be released; E. In addition to any applicable statutes, reasons to delay the release of video evidence can include the following: (The following list is non-exhaustive and is no way designed to limit the statutory discretion of the Sheriff in delaying the release of or withholding video evidence) 1. To protect the safety of the individuals involved; 2. To protect the integrity of an active criminal or administrative investigation; 3. To protect the identity and safety of confidential informants; 4. To protect the constitutional rights of involved parties. 4