Mobile NAACP President urges Alabama to take notes after OCSO releases graphic body camera footage
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — It only took six days for Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden to release body camera video that showed the death of Senior U.S. Airman Roger Fortson.
Meanwhile, body camera footage of various deadly encounters with the Mobile Police Department has yet to be released thanks to opposing state laws.
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Mobile NAACP President Robert Clopton weighed into the ongoing discussion of body camera access in Alabama.
“In Mobile, there’s a tendency to adjudicate the situation,” Clopton said. “If everything is right and everything is above the board, let the public see the video.”
Fortson was killed after the deputy responded to a disturbance call on May 3.
The body camera video showed the deputy had announced himself twice. Then, Fortson opened the door with a gun in his hand, and that’s when the deputy opened fire.
Clopton said that while this deadly encounter happened in Florida, he said Alabama should take notes on how OCSO dealt with the situation.
“Okaloosa County, without fear of judgment, they showed the video,” Clopton said. “Thus, here in Mobile, we hold the video forever… That right there creates a level of distrust.”
Mobile Public Safety Director Robert Lasky pointed out why Mobile hardly ever released body camera footage.
“That’s Florida. Florida has a completely different set of laws,” Lasky said.
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Lasky said Florida public record laws are much broader than Alabama public records laws.
“Their body camera laws allows them to show video or release video. Ours simply does not,” Lasky said.
An Alabama state law that was enacted on Sept. 1 allows family, attorneys and those depicted in body camera footage to request to see the video. However, access isn’t always granted.
“Once we know it’s Grand Jury material or get a subpoena for it to be Grand Jury material, we then cannot show it until that Grand Jury concludes,” Lasky said.
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Those who are granted access cannot take any copies of the footage with them.
Body camera footage, according to Lasky, cannot be shown to anyone if it is set to go before a Grand Jury.
“If for some reason we can’t show them the video, such as a Grand Jury subpoena, then we have to provide them in writing the exact reason why we can’t show the video,” Lasky said.
In the Mobile Police shooting that killed 16-year-old Randall Adjessom, Lasky said the family saw the video within 48 hours of the teen’s death. That’s because the family requested to see the footage before a Grand Jury Subpoena was issued.
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“If people want to see the video, they need to get the written request in as soon as they possibly can,” Lasky said.
The most recent push to legally make body camera footage a public record in Alabama was shut down in the latest legislative session.
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