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Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal

After the outcry sparked by an Albuquerque police video showing two officers shoot and kill James Boyd two years ago, APD and police union leaders agreed to limit the amount of information immediately released to the public, and police in some cases have withheld videos until after the investigation is complete.

And that has taken up to a year or more.

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City Attorney Jessica Hernandez, however, said the department’s practices for releasing information after shootings by police ensures the most important details for public safety are quickly made available and that APD hasn’t created policies to limit what is released.

She said there has never been a formal policy dictating when videos of shootings by police are released and that the release of such videos are evaluated on a case-by-case basis using exemptions to the state Inspections of Public Records Act.

But police have taken longer to release videos of controversial shootings since the Boyd shooting. The department waited over a year to release the video showing a lieutenant shoot and seriously injure an Albuquerque police detective.

More recently, APD has refused a Journal request to provide video of an incident in which a police officer shot and killed Dennis Humphrey, 58, after a standoff in his Northeast Albuquerque home in May.

Initially, APD simply ignored the newspaper’s request. The department last week released dispatch records and 911 audio but still refused to provide the video. A spokeswoman cited an “ongoing investigation.”

APD Chief Gorden Eden discussed the police practices in a wide-ranging deposition he gave in connection with a lawsuit brought by the family of Mary Hawkes, a 19-year-old suspected car thief shot and killed by police in the Southeast Heights in April 2014. It wasn’t clear when the change went into effect.

Videos of officer-involved shootings have been thrust to the forefront of the national debate over police shootings – important both to critics who allege inappropriate use of force and to law enforcement officers whose video recordings exonerate them.

In his seven-hour deposition under oath, Eden said that, after the Boyd shooting, APD decided to change the way videos and information were released. But city officials said those changes were related to which investigators and which agencies would be involved in discussing the release of information and the changes don’t necessarily make the department less transparent.

Eden said police and the police officers union agreed on the change, which was never officially announced. It wasn’t clear when that change went into effect.

“Basically providing the basic information, maybe the minimal amount of information, without the investigation being complete,” Eden said when describing the change. “I believe the old policy was that they would provide as much information” as possible.

Other videos – in cases that showed the person shot by police was armed and pointed a gun or shot at officers – have been released much more quickly.

APD has released video promptly in cases where an assailant fired at an APD officer.

Union support

Shaun Willoughby, the president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, said the union has long advocated for not releasing videos of shootings by police until after the district attorney has decided whether to bring charges against the officers. He said the release of video hurts investigations and affects a possible jury pool.

But he said officers are still not aware of a formal policy within the department governing when videos should be released.

“The media and the public have the right to see these videos but not prior to a review of potential charges being completed by the DA,” he said in a statement. “We believe the release of these videos can and do negatively impact the jury pool and lead to politicized case judgment based on public opinion.”

The video of two officers shooting Boyd in the Sandia foothills following a several-hour standoff was released just days after the incident. The video showed that Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man armed with two knives, had started to turn away from officers when he was shot.

The video went viral and set off large protests in Albuquerque. The two officers have been charged with second-degree murder and are scheduled to stand trial later this year.

They say they followed protocol and fired only because they believed another officer faced an imminent threat.

Quiet change

In high-profile cases after the Boyd shooting, Albuquerque police have delayed releasing videos of controversial shootings.

The city waited 14 months and settled a lawsuit before it released a video that showed Lt. Greg Brachle shoot undercover officer Jacob Grant in a botched drug sting. Grant survived and the lawsuit he filed was settled for $6 million and a lifetime of health care.

The city took about 10 months before it released footage that showed numerous officers empty dozens of rounds of ammunition at a suspect in a stolen car, which gravely injured 20-year-old Rodrigo Garcia. Garcia had part of his brain removed after the shooting.

Eden said in the deposition that the city and the Albuquerque police union have agreed to only release what he called a “public safety statement” after police shootings.

“And then as the information becomes releasable, we are releasing that information,” he said.

He didn’t say what exactly makes materials releasable under the current policy.

Eden said the initial information he receives on shootings by police comes from the City Attorney’s Office. He said he doesn’t get any of the information from officers at the scene or have discussions with other investigators who are on scene prior to making public statements.

“Other than greeting people that are there, no,” Eden said, according to a transcript of his deposition.

Assistant City Attorney Stephanie Griffin was present during the deposition.

Hernandez said the “public safety statement” was created to ensure that officers who shoot people in the line of duty don’t refuse to answer questions at the scene. By setting a clear policy on what officers do and don’t have to answer immediately, police can ensure that any information that may affect the public’s safety is quickly disseminated, such as other suspects being in the area.

Edward Harness, the executive director of the Civilian Police Oversight Agency, said the CPOA investigators and Police Oversight Board members who sit on Albuquerque police’s Policy and Procedures Review Board and the Office of Policy Analysis have not been involved in discussions about police protocols for releasing videos to the public.

Eden would not comment for the story.

Shannon Kennedy, who filed the Hawkes lawsuit, criticized police for withholding videos and information on shootings for months or over a year, contending that makes it more difficult for families and experts to determine whether there is cause to file a civil lawsuit in a case. There are deadlines for when different types of lawsuits have to be filed.

“They just want to prevent families from getting large settlements,” she said.

The Hawkes shooting

The shooting was controversial for several reasons.

Former officer Jeremy Dear’s lapel camera was unplugged and didn’t record the shooting, which happened near Wyoming and Zuni SE. It was also the first shooting after the U.S. Department of Justice announced Albuquerque police had a pattern of excessive force, which included police shootings.

Police had cornered Hawkes into a mobile home park and were trying to arrest her on receiving or transferring a motor vehicle when she jumped over a wall surrounding the park and ran from police.

Dear reported that Hawkes was carrying a firearm. As he was chasing after her, he said she stopped, turned and pointed the gun at him.

Attorneys for the Hawkes family have raised questions about that account.

Their lawsuit said that ballistics and Hawkes’ injuries show she must have been running when she was shot. It also said there were no fingerprints, DNA or any other evidence that linked Hawkes to the gun police say they found at the scene.

Attorneys for the family also say that police video of the shooting contradicts some of what officers on scene told police investigators.

Dear has since been fired by APD for insubordination for often failing to turn on his video cam. The city’s Personnel Board has overturned that firing, and the city has appealed the decision.