TEMPE, AZ — The Tempe Police Department’s policy requires body camera video to be released with a “medium blur” over the entire recording, and it’s raising concerns around transparency for public records advocates.
The ABC15 Investigators made a public records request for body camera video of officers mistakenly using a Grappler on the wrong car during a pursuit.
The controversial case has now gone viral.
ABC15 Investigator Nicole Grigg requested the video in January of 2024, and it was not released until nearly the end of 2024.
Records obtained by the ABC15 Investigators show that the vehicle that was mistaken for the suspect’s was the same color, make, model and had the same number of doors.
A Grappler is a device used by police in an attempt to stop a moving vehicle. It deploys from the front of a police car and attaches to the suspect vehicle’s back tire.
Tempe police were assisting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for an aggravated assault suspect in the town of Guadalupe.
A report by a detective with Tempe’s Action Response Squad said while approaching the area, the radio became overwhelmed with different officers attempting to give out the location and direction of travel. That’s when the officer located a white Buick Verano, which matched the description of the suspect vehicle.
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There is no video of the actual deployment because the Tempe Police Department does not have dash cameras in their patrol cars. However, the body camera footage shows the seconds after police stopped the wrong vehicle.
“If you're getting public records like a body cam video that's completely blurred out, it undermines the ability of the public to actually hold them accountable, because it's not entirely clear what's going on here, especially when it's blurred and silenced,” said Jared Keenan, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Along with the blur, Keenan raises questions about the officers muting their body-worn cameras throughout the recordings.
The Tempe Police Department policy has a policy around body-worn cameras that says to avoid starting and stopping recordings, and officers should consider using the mute function when appropriate.
“To have the officers in the field have the ability to mute and unmute as they wish is very problematic,” said Keenan.
The ABC15 Investigators reviewed policies from other departments, finding some do not even allow their officers the ability to mute body-worn cameras.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is one of the agencies that does not allow deputies to mute their cameras.
A spokesperson for the Mesa Police Department also tells ABC15 that the officers do not have access to the mute function.
After Tempe police grappled the wrong vehicle, the body camera video shows an officer talking to the passenger of the vehicle.
He told the officer, “Oh s***! I was like what the hell,” then the audio goes quiet.
“Tempe Police could certainly change their policy and I would suggest that they should do so and adopt one that is pro-transparency and less secretive,” said Keenan.
As for the Grappler, Tempe has a policy in place for officers, but it is behind restrictive orders that the public can not see.
A spokesperson for the Tempe Police Department said in an email that officers do not use lights and sirens before deploying the device because it is done by surprise, “If the lights are on and the suspect sees our vehicle, it is much more difficult to use the grappler.”
Tempe police add that the department uses a “medium blur” to redact video footage provided to reporters, “We use the 'medium blur' style of redaction because it’s faster to process public records requests this way, as opposed to using the slower 'object tracking' style of redaction.”
An email went on to say, “Because we get so many requests for bodycam footage – which requires a fairly lengthy review and redaction process – we use this redaction style because it’s faster and has helped us reduce the backlog. As we streamline the Tempe open records policy, we expect our response times to improve.”
The department also said that the “medium blur” remains their policy while they catch up on their backlog, and then they hope to make some changes.
As for officers muting the video when appropriate, “It’s a judgment call in the field amid a fast-moving, fluid, and often emotional scene. Every incident is different, with different levels of muting by the officers involved,” a spokesperson wrote.
The victim in this case, Tristan Sosa, is still without a vehicle more than a year later as her car was considered a total loss.
The City of Tempe has told us they want to work with her to address what happened, but they say they are waiting for her to fill out the needed form.
