Video delay in Elizabeth City police shooting fuels uncertainty and tensions

Exactly what happened when Pasquotank County Sheriff’s deputies fatally shot Andrew Brown Jr. in Elizabeth City has not yet been revealed, but one thing is clear: North Carolina’s body camera law needs to be fixed.

The shooting occurred Wednesday just a day after the conviction of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis had brought reassurance that police officers will be held accountable for unlawful fatal encounters. Now controversy around Brown’s killing has revived the issue and videos from the deputies’ body cameras are being withheld. In the absence of the videos, the public is left to speculate, witness accounts can’t be verified and tensions are needlessly increased.

“We’re going into 72 hours of this thing, and still there’s no answers,” Elizabeth City Councilman Gabriel Adkins said Friday. “Each day that goes by, there’s more pain and more anger.”

At issue is a provision of the North Carolina law that prevents the public release of police-worn body camera and dashboard camera videos unless approved by a judge. In signing the bill in 2016, then-Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, said it would set up “clear and distinct procedures and standards by which a law enforcement agency may disclose or release a recording from a body-worn or dashboard camera.”

In practice, setting up obstacles to releasing police videos only adds to confusion and undermines police credibility.

Elizabeth City Mayor Bettie Parker said during a Saturday news conference that body camera videos should be released within a day or two after an incident. “Come on now, this doesn’t make sense,” she said. “We have to wait forever to get the body cam — 24 hours or 48 hours is enough. So let’s just change this.”

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat and former state attorney general, has rightly called for the prompt release of the videos as the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) looks into the shooting.

“Initial reports of the shooting in Elizabeth City and death of Andrew Brown Jr. this week are tragic and extremely concerning,” Cooper tweeted Friday. “The body camera footage should be made public as quickly as possible and the SBI should investigate thoroughly to ensure accountability.”

Next, Cooper should call for a change in the law. Prior cases show that the prompt release of police-worn body camera and dash camera videos strengthens public confidence that the investigation will pursue accountability wherever the facts lead. That confidence is especially important in racially charged cases involving the deaths of Black people at the hands of white officers. Leaving the facts unclear can spur rumors and false accounts that lead to violent protests.

The prompt release also can support police actions. In Columbus, Ohio, police released body camera video within hours of a police officer fatally shooting a 16-year-old Black girl who charged at two people with a knife on Tuesday. The video shows the white officer apparently saved a young woman from being stabbed.

“I understand the outrage and the emotion about this incident,” Columbus Director of Public Safety Ned Pettus Jr. said at a news conference. “The video shows there is more to this. It requires us to pause.”

The need to see police videos of the Elizabeth City shooting is especially clear given the information that has surfaced. Brown, a 42-year-old Elizabeth City resident, was shot in his car as he apparently tried to flee a group of deputies who had come to his home to serve search and arrests warrants. Seven Pasquotank County deputies have been put on leave after the shooting. The deputies’ body camera videos should show whether Brown was a threat, or whether the officers shot into his vehicle to prevent his escape.

A state Senate bill offered by three Democrats just weeks before the Elizabeth City shooting – Senate Bill 510 – would make body cam videos subject to release after a 48-hour period., though law enforcement agencies could ask a judge to block release of portions or all of a video.

North Carolina law should be changed to serve the purpose of police-worn body and dash cameras – to provide a prompt visual account to the public when police use force.