December 18, 2020

Statement from the Mayor's Office on Body Worn Camera (BWC) Video


On February 21, 2020, the City’s Law Department provided Plaintiff’s counsel with Body Worn Camera (BWC) video connected to the report of the incident. At that time, the Law Department clearly failed to search all potential locations where corresponding BWC video could be located. 14 videos were turned over to Ms. Young’s counsel. Seventeen days later, on March 9, 2020, Plaintiff’s counsel voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit against the City which halted any further searches for video by the Law Department in response to the order. Following the CBS report this week, in order to ensure complete transparency, the Mayor directed that all BWC footage be released to Ms. Young, CBS and the public. It was at that time that six additional videos were discovered.   

While this failure to produce the additional six videotapes was inadvertent and not intentional, nonetheless, it was completely unacceptable. The Mayor has directed that all individuals responsible for this discovery failure be identified so they can be held accountable.