Public Records Resolutions!

Ohio Public Records Briefing - Edition #103

Merry Christmas! We hope you’re ready for the holidays and will soon get some well-deserved time off.

We’re wrapping up 2025 with our final edition of the year. Since it’s a holiday week, we’re going to give you a special section: your 2026 public records New Year’s Resolutions!

We’ll see you in 2026 with more public records fun. We’re already planning some great topics and remain open for any suggestions you may have!

Body Cam Review: When Transparency Backfires

In this week’s review, we’re looking at a mess down in Alabama that deals with the intersection of public records and law enforcement crisis communications. It’s less about redaction but still a very interesting story.

The Birmingham Police Department was involved in a shooting that killed a 26-year-old named Jamal Williams. As is often the case, the community demanded immediate answers and release of the footage. In an effort to be transparent and calm the public, the Birmingham Police released the footage of the shooting very quickly. The police chief held a press conference where his agency’s footage (as well as footage from another public agency) were released. In terms of crisis communications, this is what we almost always recommend. Body camera footage is far more likely to clear police than it is to show the police doing something wrong.

But there was a catch. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA)—basically their version of BCI—was supposed to be doing the independent investigation into the shooting. When Birmingham released the video, ALEA publicly announced they were ending their investigation and then they walked away from case.