Really hard to believe that this is still a contested issue, but here we are.
The school district and sheriff’s office in Uvalde must release their records and documents related to the Robb Elementary School shooting — including police body camera footage, 911 calls and communications, a Texas district court judge ruled last week.
A group of news organizations including The Texas Tribune sued the city of Uvalde, the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District over access to the records after their open-records requests were repeatedly denied following the May 24, 2022 shooting. Lawyers representing the outlets on Monday announced the ruling from the 38th Judicial District Court of Uvalde County, touting it as a “victory for government transparency.”
[…]
“This ruling is a pivotal step towards ensuring transparency and accountability,” said Laura Prather, a media law attorney with Haynes Boone who represents the news organizations. “The public deserves to know the full details of the response to this tragic event, and the information could be critical in preventing future tragedies.”
The ruling by Judge Sid Harle was dated July 8 and it gives the sheriff’s office and the school district 20 days, or until July 28, to release “all responsive documents.”
A similar ruling from a Travis County state district judge last year ordered the Department of Public Safety to release law enforcement records, however DPS has appealed that order and has not yet released the data related to its investigation. Ninety-one of the agency’s troopers responded to the shooting, which drew a response from nearly 400 law enforcement officials.
See here, here, and here for some background. I assume this will be appealed, as the DPS decision was, which means we won’t actually see any of those records anytime soon. What’s wild to me is that for the most part, we already know a lot about what happened thanks to that Justice Department report earlier this year. What secrets do these organizations still have that they think are worth fighting to keep? I very much hope that someday soon we get to find out.