SUN INVESTIGATES State holds back footage of riot

Video around Mondawmin Mall from 2015 unrest kept from media and others

When police and local residents began squaring off near Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore two years ago — precipitating widespread rioting, looting and arson in the city — it was captured in part by a network of government surveillance cameras in and around the nearby Metro station.

What the footage shows, however, remains a secret.

The Maryland Transit Administration, which operates the station and its camera system, has refused to release any of the footage despite requests by The Baltimore Sun and questions from city officials, activists and others about the role the MTA and the city Police Department might have played in escalating the tensions on the day of 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s funeral.

The MTA said releasing the footage would present unacceptable security risks by divulging where its cameras are located and how they pan and zoom.

It won’t say how many cameras it has at Mondawmin, in Baltimore or throughout the state. It said releasing information about the cameras, many of which were funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, would offer terrorists looking to attack transportation infrastructure an advantage.

Civil liberties advocates say that’s ridiculous, and possibly illegal.

“It’s completely absurd that two years after Freddie Gray was killed, the video footage of the unrest developing has never been released,” said David Rocah, senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland.

The confrontation between police and residents and students near the mall and Metro station on April 27, 2015, which followed widespread protests around Gray’s death, quickly escalated into a night of rioting, looting and arson.

When The Sun first requested the footage under the state’s Public Information Act, it was told by the MTA that the footage couldn’t be shared because it was relevant to open criminal investigations. After a year, The Sun noted the statute of limitations for bringing charges related to minor offenses had run out, and asked that the MTA redact from the footage any portions that related to felony crimes still under investigation and provide the rest.

The MTA then said releasing the footage would facilitate a “terrorist attack” and that it could not be released without the permission of the federal Transportation Security Administration. However, the TSA said it did not have to consider the request because the state already had determined it was not going to release the footage.

In lieu of releasing the video, The Sun requested that a reporter be allowed to view the footage at MTA offices. That request was denied. The Sun requested to see a selection of still images from the cameras. That request also was denied.