Sacramento police look to wider video releases to ease community tensions

Responding to low morale and frustration on the police force, Sacramento may consider wider release of police videos to include everyday interactions and incidents where officers appear in a positive light — a practice that would make the department among the most forthcoming in the nation with official footage.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Tim Davis, head of the Sacramento police officers union, said members of the force are dispirited that a new city policy requiring release of video in extreme confrontations unfairly portrays their department. In the most recent example, an officer was captured on tape last month tackling a pedestrian to the ground and repeatedly punching him in Del Paso Heights.

Steinberg called Tuesday for the city to consider releasing “as much video as possible” to show “everyday interactions, incidents that occur where the police officer acted in the right,” which he said would boost department morale. He also, however, supports releasing video from lesser confrontations that don’t meet the current threshold.

"The police have ... rightly complained that with our current video release policy, the only thing the public sees is the controversial shooting. Well, there is a lot more to see,” said Steinberg at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “Transparency is transparency and we have the technology now to be able to actually do more than we are doing in a way that I think could bridge some of the trust gap that we hear so much about.”

A Sacramento city policy approved last year requires that footage of police shootings, deaths in custody and some citizen complaints be released to the public within 30 days, unless the City Council grants a waiver. The council responded to community demands for more transparency following controversial police shootings in the city and elsewhere in the nation.

Davis said the current video release policy is partly to blame for an exodus of officers from the department. He said negative videos have left some officers feeling undervalued and unappreciated, causing them to look elsewhere for work.

“If the city through this policy is going to select the most tragic incidents and release that video, then they need to find the most triumphant and release it,” said Davis. “It’s not fair to just tell one side of the story.”

Police Chief Brian Louie told the council that 28 officers are projected to leave Sacramento’s force this year for jobs at other departments. By comparison, 20 officers left last year and 19 in 2015.

Police spokesman Matt McPhail said the department currently has the discretion to release video in noncritical incidents but does not regularly do so in part because it lacks the manpower to edit the footage — the department currently blurs faces and identifying details such as license plate numbers. Also, he said, the department has not determined that releasing more video is the best course.

“I know it seems really simple to say you have it why don’t you just do it, but there are a lot more calculations,” said McPhail. “The question is by putting that video out, what is the value and what is the potential negative?”