Documents Show SFPD Ignored The Press Pass The Department Had Issued To Brian Carmody In Order To Place Him Under Surveillance

from the whatever-keeps-the-surveillance-going dept

As details continue to come out about the San Francisco Police Department's raid of a journalist's home last year, the more it appears as though there was a concerted effort by the PD to ignore both the First Amendment and the state's journalist shield law.

From the beginning, investigators knew someone from within the police department had leaked a coroner's report to Brian Carmody, a local "stringer." But the department didn't limit itself to tracking down its inside source. It placed Carmody under investigation, targeting his phone records, location data, and, finally, his home. The department's chief, Bill Scott, spent two weeks defending the raid before deciding it was OK to blame officers for actions he explicitly improved.

Five warrants linked to the investigation have been tossed by the courts that issued them. Carmody has received a $369,000 settlement for his rights being violated. And more details continue to come to light, showing the department personnel involved never came anywhere close to operating in good faith.

Last month, it was revealed that the officers sent to raid Carmody's home were instructed to turn off their body cameras. This allowed the PD to write its own narrative of the search without anything more neutral possibly exposing lies or omissions.

Fox affiliate KTVU is continuing to dig into this story and has uncovered even more damning information about the investigation of Carmody and the raid of his home. First, the SFPD was well aware (or should have been) Carmody was a journalist, and that targeting him for surveillance would be problematic and unconstitutional.

While pointing investigators to Carmody, the chief’s office failed to give the investigators a crucial detail: He had a valid press pass.

A reporter does not need a press pass to be protected by the Shield Law. But by issuing Carmody a press pass, the department recognized he was a working journalist.

This may have been an oversight. Or it may have been a deliberate withholding. But either way, the investigation began after the leaked report appeared on a local news station, which should have made it clear journalists were involved at some level and perhaps some due diligence was in order. It's hard to believe the SFPD didn't do an internal search of its own records first to dig up what they could about Brian Carmody before seeking search warrants.

That takes us back to the warrants. Five judges quashed the five warrants they had issued once news came to light that Carmody was a journalist. But there were seven warrants and the first warrants allowed the SFPD to, in essence, go back in time and put officers on Carmody's tail.

Investigators then began writing a series of warrants – seven in all – allowing them access to the officers’ phone records, and Carmody’s geo locations and call information.

The Police Department used the locations to retrace Carmody’s steps around San Francisco in hopes of catching him and his source on video doing the handoff.

This led to two more warrants -- the two that haven't been tossed out by judges. These targeted four places Carmody had visited, including a restaurant and a coffee shop. Video recordings were obtained from all four but investigators were unable to find any footage of Carmody meeting with his police source. When this failed, cops staked out Carmody's home for more than a month before seeking a warrant to search his home.

As for the warrant applications themselves, they were supposed to be reviewed by an assistant district attorney before being submitted to a judge. None of the seven warrants were submitted to the DA's office. Unfortunately, this isn't further evidence of a concerted effort by investigators to illegally target a journalist. This is just standard operating procedure for SFPD officers, who apparently rarely bother to follow the department's rules.

But [Captain William] Braconi wrote that in his nearly two decades as an investigator “rarely if ever” did an assistant district attorney review a search warrant before it was submitted to a judge.

This is a very ugly mess. And it's obviously not the only time the SFPD has broken internal guidelines and state laws to pursue investigations. If they were this comfortable pursuing a journalist over a report one of their own leaked, investigators have undoubtedly abused their power in smaller, less noticeable ways before. The more that's uncovered about the case, the more it appears the city got off pretty cheaply by paying Carmody only $369,000.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, brian carmody, journalists, press pass, raids, search warrant, sfpd