Despite vows of transparency, police block body camera videos

Autumn Steele and her husband, Gabriel, were fighting again, so he called 911. An officer sped to their home and ordered her to stop chasing him in the yard, Then, frightened by the family dog, he fired - killing Autumn with a bullet to her chest.

Authorities declared in an accident. The officer was not disciplined.

But since the Jan. 6 shooting, Steele's family has been battling police in Burlington to see 28 minutes of body-camera video recorded by the two officers who responded that day. State investigators have released a 12-second clip, but Steele's relatives say it raises questions.

'I deserve to know what happened to my daughter. The public deserves to know,” said Steele's mother, Gail Colbert. 'How can they keep this from us?”

In the turbulent year since Michael Brown's death sparked protests in Ferguson, Mo., and beyond, politicians, law enforcement officials and community activists have seized on body cameras as a vital reform capable of restoring transparency and trust to police interactions with the public. But in Burlington and elsewhere, police and other officials routinely block release of body-camera videos while still giving officers accused of wrongdoing access to the recordings.

Nationwide, police have shot and killed more than 750 people since January, according to a Washington Post database. Of those, The Post has found 49 incidents captured by a body camera, about 6 percent. But only 20 of those videos - less than half - have been publicly released. And in several of those cases, the recording - as in Burlington - was severally edited.

Meanwhile, almost all of the 36 departments involved in those shootings have permitted their officers to view the videos before giving statements to investigators, The Post found. Civil and human rights groups fear that access could help rogue officers tailor stories to obscure misconduct.

'What point is there of even doing this if they are going to be treated this way? Why even spend the money on these cameras?” asked Burlington Mayor Shane McCampbell, who has called on police to release video of the Steele shooting. He noted that police promised greater openness last year when they petitioned the city to buy body cameras.

While individual police departments are adopting rules, police chiefs and unions are lobbying state officials to enshrine favorable policies into law. In 36 states - including Iowa - and the District of Columbia this year, lawmakers introduced legislation to create rules governing the use of body cameras, often with the goal of increasing transparency.

Of all 138 various proposals made nationwide, 20 were enacted, The Post found. Eight of those expanded the use of body cameras. However, 10 set up legal roadblocks to public access in states including Florida, South Carolina and Texas. Most died after police and unions mounted campaigns against them.

Police officials defend that effort, saying overly lax rules could help criminals. Jury pools could be tainted by the release of video evidence. Informants might be reluctant to come forward if there's a chance they were caught on a video. Others caught on camera might file lawsuits claiming privacy violations.

'If you have a kid who drank too much on his 21st birthday and the police are called, do you really want video of that kid, sick and throwing up, to be on YouTube for the rest of his life?” asked Richard Beary, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Despite the growing popularity of body cameras, fatal police encounters still rarely are documented by department-owned video. Only about one-third of the nation's 18,000 police departments have acquired body cameras. Last month, the Obama administration announced $23 million in grants to expand their use.

But even when a camera is present, things can go wrong. They can fall off during struggles or be angled away from the action. Police acknowledge that one of their biggest challenges is getting officers to turn them on.

In the 36 departments where body cameras captured an officer-involved shooting this year, policies for releasing the video vary dramatically.

Five say they never will release video without a court order. Five say they always release the recording. The rest fall in between.

The Burlington video policy falls into the most restrictive category.

Burlington officials said if it had been up to them, no video of Autumn Steele's shooting would have been released. But the Iowa Department of Public Safety was called to investigate, and state officials put out a 12-second excerpt.

On the day of the shooting, Steele, 34, had been released from jail on a domestic violence charge for hitting Gabriel with a spatula, according to a police report. Violating a court order, she returned home and Gabriel called police.

The video clip opens with Officer Jesse Hill running toward the Steeles on a snowy sidewalk outside their home. Autumn is chasing Gabriel, who is carrying their 3-year-old son. Their dog, Sammy, a German shepherd-collie mix, trails behind.

As Hill approaches, Autumn yells, 'He's got my kid!” Hill orders her to stop. Sammy starts barking and disappears from view. 'Get your dog!” Hill yells.

Before anyone can respond, Hill fires two shots while falling backward in the snow. The camera points to the sky.

Gabriel stops running and turns to his wife: 'He shot you?” Autumn slumps to the sidewalk. The excerpt ends there.

Nearly 28 additional minutes of video were recorded that day, and Steele's mother believes it would tell her much that she wants to know.

What did Hill say after the shots? Did Sammy bite him, as Hill said? And what did Hill do to try to save Steele's life?

In Iowa, lawmakers proposed a series of body camera bills, including one that would make videos public as soon as any criminal investigations were concluded. Opposed by police organizations, it died when the legislature adjourned.