Privacy v. Public Access in the Emerald City

citmedialaw
Bryce Newell

For the past few years here in Seattle, a fascinating debate has been brewing about the balance between government transparency and citizens' privacy, particularly at the intersection of the state Public Records Act and the state Privacy Act.

The current controversy involves a lawsuit for declaratory relief filed in January by the City of Seattle against local attorney James Egan, after he submitted a public records request for 36 Seattle Police Department dash-cam videos (see the complaint here).  Egan requested the videos from the SPD under the Washington Public Records Act in relation to his representation of clients with misconduct claims against the police. (Egan has publicly posted prior videos that he received from the SPD under earlier Public Records Act.  The 36 videos at issue in the new request don’t necessarily relate to police interactions with Egan’s clients, but rather to the officers involved in the earlier incidents.)

The city refused to produce the videos, citing a potential conflict with the state’s Privacy Act and the department's concerns over potential liability for turning over videos that might violate the privacy of the individuals depicted in the footage. Days later, Egan filed a second request for the video footage, this time requesting the visual footage only, without audio, which was also rejected.  He has also moved to strike the City’s claims under the state anti-SLAPP statute.

This whole controversy is especially interesting to me as a researcher interested in government transparency and as a supporter of proper policing.  A close reading of the statutes at issue is enlightening.

Washington's Public Records Act heavily favors public disclosure, but City Attorney Pete Holmes is concerned that one provision of the Privacy Act, RCW 9.73.090(1)(c), limits the city’s ability to disclose the videos to anyone except the individuals involved in the recorded incidents.  (Holmes recently posted his thoughtful take on the issues here, and I applaud his willingness to discuss the matter publicly.)  The provision of the Privacy Act that most concerns the city reads in part:

No sound or video recording made under this subsection [which allows police to record dash-cam video] may be duplicated and made available to the public by a law enforcement agency subject to this section until final disposition of any criminal or civil litigation which arises from the event or events which were recorded. (emphasis added)

The city also claims that the Privacy Act allows them to keep the dash-cam videos sealed from the public for three years.  Reportedly, this is also the timeframe for when Egan says the videos are "slated for deletion" from the SPD’s electronic video system.  If true and the Privacy Act does bar the SPD from releasing the videos, it would appear that SPD dash-cam videos would be effectively exempted from public records requests in the future.

More Police Brutality in Seattle

FreeThoughtBlogs

Only a week after the DOJ released a report that found Seattle police officers were guilty of misconduct in 20% of all uses of force by the department comes this story, where an officer allegedly got so out of line that the man he had pulled over called 911 to make sure he was a real cop.

A local man called the cops on Seattle officers when he felt a traffic stop was spinning out of control – and the entire incident was captured on a police video that shows the man being yanked from his car and thrown to the ground…

The video shows Seattle police pulling a car over for speeding, then one officer walking up to the driver who was pulled over.

Although the dashboard camera captured the incident, the officer did not wear his microphone – a violation of department policy.

Once stopped, the driver, Amanuel Gebreselassie, says the talk went bad from the beginning.

“He’s using profanity. He’s not acting professional. He’s just not acting like an officer,” says Gebreselassie.

In their report, police said the driver was “extremely verbally aggressive.” But Gebreselassie denies it – and says the stop seemed so out of line, he called 911.
An audiotape of the 911 call recorded the conversation between Gebreselassie and the 911 dispatcher.

“911. What are you reporting?” the dispatcher says.

“Uhh, an illegal stop by an officer – you know, I just want to make sure he’s a real officer. … There’s an officer here, but he’s talking crazy to me, and I’m not really dealing with this guy.”

The conversation was cut short when a group of officers returned to the car.
“Get out of the car,” one officer can be heard saying on the 911 tape.

“For what?”

“Get out of the car, man.”

Police say Gebresellassie resisted, so they yanked him to the ground.

In the video, one officer appears to deliver a sharp kick – but it’s unclear where it lands.

The officers then performed an illegal search of the car. The department reprimanded three officers for the illegal search but did nothing about the violence inflicted on the man. Balko suggests a perfectly reasonable policy:

I propose a rule for cases like these: Any time a police officer inappropriately turns off his dash cam, turns off his uniform microphone, or illegally confiscates other audio or video of an incident which then ends up missing or destroyed, the courts will begin considering any disputed facts about the incident with a presumption that the citizen’s account is the correct one.

I couldn’t agree more.

From Japan To Seattle People Are Breathing In Virtually Undetectable Hot Radiation Particles

Alexander Higgins Blog

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen reports that tests from independent scientists confirm that people from Japan to Seattle are breathing in dangerous virtually undetectable hot radiation particles on a daily basis.

Arnie Gundersen weighs in on what the latest doubling of the estimated amounts of radiation released from the Fukushima nuclear power plant means. Independent scientists he is in contact with tell him people near Fukushima are breathing in 300 to 400 hot particles per day, while people in Tokyo are breathing in 10 hot particles a day. The same tests shows that all the way across the pacific in Seattle, test show people are breathing on average 5 hot particles per day.

He also tells us that the latest radiation estimates from Tepco are based on the assumption that 98% of the radiation at the Fukushima nuclear reactor has still be contained, meaning their estimates show only 2% of the radiation has been released. Personally, I find that hard to believe with explosions at 3 reactors, along with 3 confirmed total meltdowns and 3 confirmed melt throughs.

Finally he tells us that a tell-tale sign of radiation exposure, metallic taste in the mouth, is being widely reported all across Japan and in the US.



Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.


CNN's John King interviews Arnie Gundersen about the Hot Particles discovered in Japan and the US. from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

CNN’s John King and Arnie Gundersen discuss “hot particles” detected in Seattle and Japan, the cozy relationship between Japanese regulator NISA (Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) and plant owner TEPCO, and changes at the Fukushima accident site since March. John King and Arnie Gundersen also discuss how TEPCO’s acknowledgement today of another error in calculating radiation dose more than doubles the amount of radioactivity to which people in the Northern Hemisphere have been exposed.

Israel 'war crimes' bus ads: Group loses billboards, too

Seattle Times
By Jim Brunner

The same group that failed in a bid to place controversial ads alleging Israel "war crimes" on Metro buses is now losing billboards with a softer message decrying U.S. aid to Israel.

Clear Channel Outdoor initially reviewed and accepted the billboard ads but reversed course this week and said it will remove them, citing a company policy of avoiding messages that offend certain persons or organizations.

The ads were purchased by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign. The group turned to the billboards after a judge allowed King County to reject the "war crimes" ads on buses, due to public-safety concerns.
The group bought four billboard ads, at about $1,400 apiece, which were supposed to run for four weeks. Three of the ads were in place. But Clear Channel Outdoor informed the group on Wednesday it would remove the ads — a move the Israel critics called censorship.

"We're trying to bring up a very serious human-rights issue that we're complicit with because our government supports these human-rights violations overseas," said Edward Mast, a spokesman for the group. "We're not being allowed to talk about it."

The ads show a Palestinian boy behind a fence and call for "Equal Rights for Palestinians" and for the U.S. to "stop funding the Israeli military."

In canceling the ads, Clear Channel did not object to those slogans. Instead, the company pointed to stronger language on the group's website, www.stop30billion-seattle.org, which was prominently promoted on the ads. That site calls Israel's Palestinian policies "war crimes" and "apartheid."

A Clear Channel executive said in a statement the company supports "community discussion of serious issues." But the company also wants to ensure any ads, including websites they promote, "are not offensive toward any business, group or individual," said Olivia Lippens, president of Clear Channel Outdoor Seattle, in an emailed statement.

Lippens said the Mideast Awareness Campaign's website is "not in keeping with those standards."
Mast said his group offered to delete or change language on its website but was told that wouldn't keep the billboard ads going.

Clear Channel did not identify which groups or individuals had objected to the billboards.
Some local pro-Israel groups that had protested the Israel critics' proposed Metro bus ads said they had not contacted Clear Channel about the new billboards.

Richard Fruchter, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, said while his organization did not complain, it did mention the billboards on its website.

"We disagree with the message, but we agree with the right of free speech," said Fruchter. However, he said the "sensational" and "inflammatory" messages weren't contributing much to the public debate.
Clear Channel said it would refund the money paid for the ads.

The billboards with the ads were on Aurora Avenue at Republican, Elliot Avenue West near West Lee Street and Lake City Way Northeast near Northeast 104th Street.