By Police1 Staff
SEATTLE — A court will weigh Tuesday whether the city should release dash cam videos without the consent of citizens who appear in them.
Attorney James Egan has pressed the city to show him 36 videos that he says could show “questionable actions by the police,” My Northwest reported. The public should be able to see all police videos, Egan said, “so it can monitor how police officers are behaving.”
In January, Egan was denied access to the same footage under Washington’s privacy act, which states dash cam cannot be viewed until three years after the incident, or until officers can no longer be sued for their actions. Egan appealed the decision, and his persistence may be putting Seattle in a tough legal position without consent from the citizens in the recordings, whom he does not represent in court.
“If we get it wrong we will be subjected to criminal and civil liability,” Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said. “That’s the kind of liability that a city really should not get into.”
Holmes has asked a judge to determine if the state’s public records act merits releasing the dash cam recordings, or if the privacy act requires they be held.