San Francisco Police Were Ordered to Turn Off Body Cameras in Raid On Journalist’s Home

Their illegal search was not recorded.

by Scott Shackford
Reason.com

When San Francisco police raided journalist Bryan Carmody’s home last year, in a misguided (and illegal) search attempting to track down a leaker, none of the event was captured on police body camera.

This turns out to be by design. A newly released memo reveals that a lieutenant with the investigative services detail specifically told police at the scene, following a captain’s orders, that officers were not to use their body cameras for the operation. The only explanation provided in the two-paragraph memo was that the “footage could compromise the investigation.”

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press acquired the memo through a public records request, but it got no explanation as to why or how recording the administration of a search warrant could compromise the probe.

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