Los Angeles PD edits police shooting videos as other cities embrace greater transparency

LOS ANGELES — The videos Memphis officials released showing the fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols last month were striking not just for the viciousness they captured.

Running 67 minutes, the footage from cameras worn by some of the officers and a cityoperated surveillance camera presented a raw, unedited look at police brutality.

The unfettered transparency earned the city’s police chief and other leaders grudging praise from Nichols’ family and law enforcement critics who said it should be a model for other police departments around the country.

Indeed, in Los Angeles, where the city’s Police Department releases heavily edited videos of shootings and other violent incidents involving officers, the decision in Memphis prompted a simple question: Why not here too?

As the LAPD and departments elsewhere wrestle with how much the public should see of violent police encounters — and how quickly they should see it — they do so knowing the stakes are undoubtedly high. Withholding too much or being slow in releasing videos of a controversial incident can further stoke the public’s anger and distrust.

California law requires police departments to release footage of most officer shootings and other serious uses of force within 45 days. There are no rules on what a department can and can’t show of an incident.

LAPD’S videos, uploaded to the department’s Youtube page, are typically narrated by the head of the LAPD’S media relations office and are compilations of footage from cameras worn by officers, recordings of

911 calls and dispatchers’ communications with officers.

The LAPD’S internal policy mirrors the 45-day time frame in the state law and requires video be released in all police shootings. A Los Angeles Times review of 41 videos from police shootings and other serious uses of force last year found they averaged 7 1/2 minutes of the incident itself. And the average time between an incident and the release of the related video was about 35 days — nearly two weeks longer than it took to get the Nichols video out.

Before the Nichols video was released, LAPD Chief Michel Moore last month decided to move more quickly than usual. In the face of mounting public pressure, he ordered footage from three deadly encounters to be released a little over a week after they occurred. In one of the incidents, in which an officer repeatedly stunned a man with a

Taser following a traffic accident, Moore opted to put out an additional 15 minutes or so of footage, in response to demands for transparency from both activists and the police union.

Until 2018, the LAPD had long resisted releasing images or video of critical incidents, even after it embarked on an ambitious effort to outfit thousands of its officers with body cameras. Department officials often cited a desire to protect victims’ privacy and the integrity of investigations for their decision to not release video. Then-chief Charlie Beck expressed concerns about the public viewing video out of context and jumping to conclusions about what it shows.

Memphis officials’ handling of the Nichols case illustrates the current reality facing city leaders across the U.S.: The decision of when and how to release video of an incident brings with it its own perils, said Laura Cole, founder of Critical Incident Videos LLC, which advises local law enforcement agencies.

Cole said she encourages the police and sheriff ’s departments she works with to release unedited footage even if it shows officers in a bad light — advice that is rooted in the ethos of her former career as a TV journalist: Get the video out and let people decide for themselves.

“The videos should not be to spin anything, the videos should be to provide facts,” she said.

At the same time, she said there are legitimate reasons for why a department may delay posting of a video. Evidence gathered by investigators can change the understanding of what happened and releasing misleading video can do more harm than good, she said.

Capt. Kelly Muniz, who runs the LAPD’S Media Relations Division, said the video of a shooting that is released publicly closely “matches the presentation” the chief and the LAPD’S independent inspector general receive when they are briefed on a shooting or other serious incident. In some cases, the chief and inspector general offer feedback about whether the edited footage included in a video accurately conveys what happened, she said.