Surprise: Austin Police Shooting-The Cameras Were Not Rolling

Police cameras were not recording during fatal shooting
Austin's Chief Knee says officers did not follow policy to document incidents.
By Tony Plohetski

AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Two Austin police officers involved in a struggle that led to the shooting death of a man last week had not activated video cameras in their patrol cars during the incident, Police Chief Stan Knee said Thursday.

Knee said investigators are still trying to determine why the officers did not record the traffic stop last Thursday near the intersection of South Pleasant Valley Road and Quicksilver Boulevard. A source close to the investigation said the camera belonging to one of the officers, Sgt. Don Doyle, did not have a videotape.

According to department policy, officers must record all traffic and pedestrian stops.

"One of my biggest disappointments in this incident is that the officers did not follow policy with regard to recording," Knee said in an interview at police headquarters today. "It is policy, and it is policy because we think cameras are an excellent tool in the work we do day in and day out."

Officials have said Officer Julie Schroeder shot and killed Daniel Rocha, 18, following a struggle. Sources have said that Schroeder feared Rocha took her Taser stun gun during the altercation and was about to use it against her or Doyle.

Tom Stribling, an attorney representing Schroeder, said Schroeder told him that the car she was driving the night of the shooting was not her usual patrol vehicle and had a different mechanism for activating the camera. Schroeder believed the camera was on during the incident, Stribling said.

Doyle could not be reached for comment. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.

Police department leaders have repeatedly declined to comment about whether patrol car video cameras recorded the shooting; Knee agreed to discuss the issue after the Austin American-Statesman verified through three sources that a videotape of the incident did not exist. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear job reprisals.

The 2003 shooting death of a man by an officer led police to begin installing video cameras in all of its 360 patrol cars and 46 unmarked cars. Schroeder and Doyle were in unmarked vehicles the night of the shooting while participating in an anti-drug operation in the neighborhood.

Police department leaders, community activists and officers said after the 2003 shooting of Jesse Lee Owens by officer Scott Glasgow that video cameras in patrol cars could offer a visual record to aid investigations after future incidents.

Glasgow's car did not have a camera at the time of the 2003 shooting, while two other officers did not put videotapes in their cameras and another officer's camera wasn't working because she failed to check it before her shift.