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"Widespread dissemination of police bodycam videos could lead to healthy accountability. It could also lead to the targeting of police."
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A judge sided with Chesterfield County on Tuesday in its denial of a reporter’s Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of footage from a police officer’s body-worn camera during a traffic stop in which a Virginia State University student had a gun trained on him. Richmond General District Judge Lawrence B. Cann III, who presided over the case instead of a Chesterfield judge, ruled that the footage is considered part of a criminal investigation, and thus falls under an exemption in the state’s freedom of information law that allows, but does not require, law enforcement officials to disclose the information. Alec Ward, a reporter at Reason magazine, made a request for a copy of the video for publication on his magazine’s website, but it was denied. FOIA allows the inspection and copying of records, but at the discretion of the agency that owns them. Chesterfield’s chief of police, Col. Jeffrey S. Katz, has said the department won’t release copies to prevent the footage from being edited, such as splicing or voice-overs. The judge added later that Ward’s “public policy concerns are legitimate. Yet there are arguments on both sides. Widespread dissemination of police bodycam videos could lead to healthy accountability. It could also lead to the targeting of police by unstable individuals and hold up to public ridicule innocent citizens caught in embarrassing situations such as field sobriety tests. Posting police videos on the internet is not a self-evident public good.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Closing a U.S. Forest Service road that leads to where protesters are challenging a natural gas pipeline violates their First Amendment rights, a lawsuit filed Wednesday claims. The lawsuit against the Forest Service takes issue with the closure of Pocahontas Road, which for the past five weeks has been the scene of protests against the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the route it will take through the Jefferson National Forest. A protester known as “Nutty” is camped out on a small platform suspended from a 50-foot pole in the middle of road, effectively blocking Mountain Valley crews from reaching a pipeline construction area on Peters Mountain. “This is a public land, it’s a public space, it’s a public venue,” said [Sen.] Chap Petersen, a Fairfax attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three pipeline opponents.
The Roanoke Times
Former Abingdon Assistant Town Manager and Clerk Cecile Rosenbaum did not indicate she was leaving her job in emails obtained by the Bristol Herald Courier. Rosenbaum’s last day was Feb. 19, according to Town Attorney Deborah Icenhour. The circumstances of her departure can’t be discussed, according to town officials. She worked for the town for nearly 13 years. The Bristol Herald Courier filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the last 10 emails sent by Rosenbaum and the last five emails she received from her town-distributed email address. The name of the person Rosenbaum sent an reply email to was redacted. The Bristol Herald Courier asked town officials why the name was redacted and received no response.
Bristol Herald Courier
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