Las Vegas shooting footage from police body-cameras along with 911 call recordings continue to remain off limits to the public, five months after the deadly mass shooting in which 58 people were killed, as police wage a legal battle over their release to the news media.
The police department has been fighting media outlets for the video and audio for months with a police attorney telling Nevada District Court Judge Richard Scotti that an earlier ruling for the release was "clearly erroneous because the government's interest in non-disclosure significantly outweighs any interest the public has in access," The Los Angeles Times reported.
While the police department was ordered by a court to release the information, police said it could take up to six months to do so, the Times said.
Authorities also argued that complying with the public records request would bleed the department of manpower and said reproducing the records would be burdensome, per the Times. According to the department, there is almost 750 hours of body-camera footage that would require review and the redaction of some items.
The police department argued this month that fees for reproduction of the footage and audio will cost from $233,750 to $458,159, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Scotti ruled, though, that police can charge up to 81 cents per page for printed documents and actual cost of copying other records, such as videos.
"Given the strong public policy in favor of production, the media must never be compelled to pay an exorbitant fee to obtain records, even if the media elects not to give any reason for the request," Scotti ruled, per the Review-Journal.
"An excessive fee is the antithesis to government accountability. … The government cannot frustrate the media’s efforts to obtain information on behalf of the public by charging exorbitant fees."
Police department lawyers have estimated there are also 1,500 documents related to the shooting, the Times reported.
"These documents will likely contain personal information that will require redaction," a police court brief stated, per the Times. "Like much of the other information requested, this will require employees to review and redact personal, identifiable information, requiring significant use of personnel."
Last Oct. 1, six days after checking in into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest concert from his 32nd-floor suite, in what has been called the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, National Public Radio reported.
Nevada Press Association executive director Barry Smith argued there is a compelling public interest in the shooting and that since Paddock killed himself, there isn't an active investigation, the Times said.
"That is really the only excuse for withholding any information or delaying its release – an active investigation," Smith said, per the Times. "Even then, you should make some argument beyond that why the release of the information will hurt you and that isn't a line of thinking we get to see. In this case, there appears to be zero reason for withholding any public information."
Meanwhile, Mandalay Bay resort owner MGM Resorts International released video and stills of Paddock days before the shooting, showing him checking in at the hotel lobby, escorted by a valet and gambling in the casino, NPR said.
He was also was seen wheeling large suitcases into his room that contained the arsenal – in all, 23 assault-style rifles and a handgun – that were recovered from his room after the attack, NPR said.
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