Yellow Scene Magazine filed a lawsuit in the Boulder County District Court this week, alleging that the City of Boulder violated a Colorado police accountability law by charging fees for body camera footage of a recent fatal police shooting.
The magazine, which covers Boulder County and the Denver metro region, filed a records request for body camera footage related to the Dec. 17, 2023 fatal shooting of Jeanette Alatorre by two city officers, according to the lawsuit. The city requested that the magazine pay $1,425 for footage of a 13-minute period during the incident, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint, filed on April 10, 2024, stated that the magazine does not have the available funds to pay such “prohibitive sums of money.” The effect of such fees, the lawsuit argues, is to “shield the unedited video footage from disclosure.”
“Boulder’s response to Yellow Scene Magazine’s request for unedited video of the shooting of Ms. Alatorre reflects a troubling refusal to be transparent,” Dan Williams, a lawyer with the local civil rights firm Hutchinson Black and Cook who is representing the magazine, said in a news release.
The lawsuit argues that under SB-217, the 2020 Law Enforcement Integrity Act, the city is prohibited from charging any fees for footage in cases of fatal police shootings. This statewide law, which lawmakers passed following national protests over police killings, requires law enforcement agencies to release all body camera footage and audio recordings of incidents if someone files a complaint. The law does not include a provision related to fees.
In response to records requests for body camera footage, the City of Boulder has cited a separate state law that allows law enforcement agencies to charge “reasonable fees” for records. The city charges about $30 for each hour of body camera footage for “research and review.” The total footage related to the Dec. 17 shooting could require 267 hours of review, costing a total of $8,016, according to the city’s response to records requests.
Sarah Huntley, a spokesperson for the City of Boulder, said the city cannot comment on pending litigation and will respond to the lawsuit through the formal court process.
In March 2024, District Attorney Michael Dougherty decided not to file criminal charges against the two officers who shot Alatorre. The decision followed an independent investigation, which determined that the officers had not committed any crime that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The 51-year-old was confronted by officers after reports that she had pointed what appeared to be a handgun at people driving near the North Boulder Recreation Center. The officers followed her through a residential neighborhood and shot less-lethal bean bags at her, but the bags did not appear to have any effect on her, according to officials. She later sustained eight rifle shot wounds and died on the scene near the intersection of Broadway and Hawthorne Avenue, according to law enforcement officials. The gun was later determined to be an air pistol designed to look like a more powerful 9-millimeter handgun.
Journalists often request body camera footage to provide the public with an objective visual record of use-of-force incidents. Boulder Reporting Lab has received one officer’s body camera footage of the shooting that largely confirms law enforcement officials’ accounts of the incident. The footage is redacted in part for privacy. The City of Boulder has also released partial and edited footage of the shooting.
As part of the lawsuit, Yellow Scene Magazine is asking a district court judge to order the city to release all footage related to the Dec. 17, 2023 shooting and declare that the city cannot charge fees as a condition for releasing body-worn camera footage.