Texas Cops Under Investigation Can Watch ‘Any’ Body Cam Footage Before Answering Questions

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Texas Observer by Michael Barajas 3/20/2018


AG Opinion: Texas Cops Under Investigation Can Watch ‘Any’ Body Cam Footage Before Answering Questions

Some fear the policy will let officers get their story straight about questionable police encounters before putting anything on record.

If a Texas cop outfitted with a body camera shoots someone, they get to review not only their own footage but that of every other body cam-wearing officer at the scene before answering questions about it.

Thanks to a Monday opinion by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, that policy will likely soon trickle down to every department in the state that equips officers with body cameras. As I wrote last year, some police accountability advocates fear the policy allows cops to get their story straight about questionable encounters before putting anything on record.

Paxton’s opinion follows a September request by Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson to clarify the sweeping body cam law the Texas Legislature passed in 2015, which entitles officers “to access any recording of an incident involving the officer before the officer is required to make a statement about the incident.” As Johnson’s office told us at the time, some Texas police departments interpreted that to mean officers could review only their own body cam footage before going on record, which civil rights groups like the ACLU still criticized as “poor investigative practice” that police would never use on other suspects. Others, including the Dallas Police Department, put that policy on steroids, allowing cops to also review the body camera footage of every other officer who was on the scene before giving a statement, according to Johnson’s office.

More: https://www.texasobserver.org/attorney-general-opinion-body-cam-texas-cops/