BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said there are legal reasons that prevent the City of Buffalo from releasing body camera footage publicly.
Specifically, he said state laws prevent the public release of body camera footage. Georgia state law does not, which is why the body camera footage of the Rayshard Brooks shooting was released.
“We also don’t have the ability to automatically fire officers given the laws of New York State,” Brown said.
Video of the June 4 incident between Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old protester, and two Buffalo Police officers, Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe, has been widely circulated on social media and showed Gugino be pushed by police, resulting in him suffering a fractured skull when he fell.
READ MORE: Where is the body camera footage of the Martin Gugino incident?
However, those videos do not show what was said between Gugino and the two officers as the incident happened. Body camera footage could provide further evidence.
Brown said there are “laws upon laws” that make releasing the footage impossible. He cited triborough law, collective bargaining laws, and agreements in union contracts.
The mayor highlighted action taken by Albany to reform police.
“I have specifically had an overall policy that I am not going to release or talk about any evidence that I may use at trial before the trial itself,” Flynn said. “I’m not going to try my case in the media…I think it’s good practice not to do that. I think it’s good practice not to try your case in public before you go to trial.”
Flynn said it would be unfair to a defendant to release body camera footage, saying it may taint a jury ahead of time and it could not give the defendant a fair trial.
He would not comment on the decision for authorities in Atlanta to release their body camera footage.
Body camera footage was released in the 2017 assault of Nicholas Belsito outside of a Buffalo Bills tailgate before the criminal trial of former Erie County Sheriff Deputy Ken Achtyl began. Even though Flynn was publicly criticized by the Erie County Sheriff over the release of the footage, Flynn pointed out that it was never his office that released the body camera footage from that incident. It was the civil attorney for Belsito that released the footage.