Seattle Kirkland King County DUI Drunk Driving Lawyer: Seattle Police Department Dash Cams go Missing

Seattle Kirkland King County DUI Drunk Driving Lawyer:  Seattle Police Department Dash Cams go Missing

Seattle Kirkland DUI / DWI / Drunk Driving Lawyers- Experienced, Successful, Affordable

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SEATTLE -- The KOMO 4 Problem Solvers have discovered that tens of thousands of police dash-cam videos —potentially critical evidence— have vanished from the Seattle Police Department.
It's just one example of why KOMO News is suing the Seattle Police Department for not releasing public records that citizens are supposed to be able to see. We spent more than a year investigating the department and fighting, on the public's behalf, for access to police videos and the department's video catalogue. As part of that investigation we discovered the missing videos.
In total, more than 45,000 videos vanished from the system over three years.
"Yes, a lot of video has disappeared and there have been efforts to recover them," Whitcomb said.
There's no way of knowing if the missing dashcam videos were of someone's field sobriety test or a case like Rachner's where it was his word against the cops. And while Rachner's research shows many of the videos have been restored, more than 15,000 are still missing.
Burns Petersen, a public defender with the Associated Counsel for the Accused, said it's upsetting if there is potentially exculpatory video that is not available to defendants.
The King County Prosecutor's Office and the county's public defender agencies told us they were never notified of any large loss of video evidence.

"There is a duty and a responsibility to obtain and preserve this evidence," Petersen said.
We don't know yet if those more than 15,000 missing videos may be critical for any criminal or civil cases. However, we have developed a database for the missing videos and we're making it available so any citizen can look for themselves.

For information on your Washington State DUI / Drunk Driving, Snohomish County DUI, King County DUI, Skagit County DUI, Island County DUI or Whatcom County DUI  please contact our Washington State DUI drunk driving attorneys for a free consultation at 425-493-1115, email us at david@davidjollylaw.com, or check out our main website at http://www.washdui.com or www.mukilteodui.com, www.everett-dui.co, www.marysville-dui.com, www.dui-bothell.com, or www.anacortesdui.com.  We represent DUI clients in every court in Western Washington including Seattle DUI cases, Kirkland DUI cases, Redmond DUI cases, Shoreline DUI cases, Lynnwood DUI cases, Everett DUI cases, Mukilteo DUI cases, Marysville DUI cases, Mt. Vernon DUI cases, Anacortes DUI cases, and Bellingham DUI cases.

Author of The DUI Handbook for the Accused, DUI/DWI: The History of Driving Under the Influence, The DUI Investigation Handbook, The Traffic Ticket Handbook and The Drug DUI Handbook. 

Seattle Kirkland DUI / DWI / Drunk Driving Lawyers- Experienced, Successful, Affordable (425) 493-1115