The Long Beach Police Department is delaying the release of body-camera video and 911 dispatch data that could shed more light on what preceded officers’ decision to shoot a man who, according to his family, was in the midst of a mental health episode.
The delay — in response to a public records request filed by the Long Beach Post — comes about two weeks after police killed 38-year-old Brandon Boyd on the steps of a North Long Beach church.
Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish has said officers shot Boyd on Nov. 19 after hours of patient, high-stakes negotiations. Boyd, police said, had texted officers about a “man with a gun” and then refused to talk with officers who were trying to make him relinquish a small-caliber handgun.
Police said they killed Boyd in an exchange of gunfire that left an officer wounded. Video from a news helicopter shows the shooting broke out immediately after officers threw a flash-bang grenade toward Boyd outside the Iglesia De Cristo Miel Church near Atlantic Avenue and 52nd Street.
Boyd’s family has been highly critical of the department, saying officers used unnecessary force on a man who contacted police for help in the midst of a crisis.
In a press conference, Boyd’s family pressed the department to swiftly release body camera video and records of his initial contact with police.
But in response to a public records request the Long Beach Post filed on Nov. 20, the department said Wednesday that it “declines to disclose” any video or audio from the shooting “because the case is under active investigation or [they are] part of an investigatory file …”.
The LBPD’s response appears to run afoul of California’s police transparency rules, according to David Loy, legal director of the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition, which has litigated police transparency cases.
“They can’t just refuse to release,” said Loy.
Because of a 2019 California law known as Assembly Bill 748, law enforcement agencies across California are required to disclose audio and video from police shootings unless they can cite specific reasons why the release would undermine an investigation or endanger a witness, neither of which the LBPD did in this case, Loy said.
Even with proper justification, police can only withhold the files for up to 45 days — with some allowance for subsequent delays — and agencies must say when they plan to make the disclosure.
In Boyd’s shooting, police have said only that they plan to release some video and other information “in the coming days.”
In a statement, police said the release of other material will be further delayed, “due to an active criminal investigation as well as the volume of material needing to be reviewed and possibly redacted.”
Loy said some other police agencies across the state have moved more quickly to proactively release footage from police shootings. He pointed to San Diego, where it’s not uncommon for police to publicly post at least some body camera footage within days or a little more than a week.
As for Long Beach police, it’s recently taken between one and three months to release edited portions of body-worn-camera video and 911 audio. Full, raw video and audio are not available on the department’s records portal for any police shooting so far this year.
Assembly Bill 748 and other companion transparency laws were passed in California with the goal of creating trust between police and the communities they work in, according to Loy, who said, historically, it was nearly impossible for the public to obtain internal police video or files, something that heightened suspicion and “created significant distrust in the community.”
“The premise of these laws is the people have the right to the full story, to decide for themselves what they think about policing and how police use their powers,” Loy said.
Video in Boyd’s case could help put to rest disagreements between police and family members, some of whom were on scene the night of the shooting. Police, for instance, said they believe Boyd fired a handgun at officers, wounding one in the arm, while the family has suggested the wound was caused by friendly fire from one of the four officers who shot at Boyd.
The family says police also arrested three distraught family members after the shooting, one of whom said she suffered a fractured arm from rough treatment.
Police said the three people were arrested after they disrupted the crime scene and one battered an officer.
In a statement, Long Beach Police Department spokesperson Allison Gallagher said the department “is committed to transparency and accountability.”