FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2018
Salt Lake City | On Wednesday morning the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) released the body-camera footage of the April 18 police-involved shooting of Delorean Pikyavit in Sugar House.
As of Friday the video had been viewed over 4,500 times.
Releasing the body-camera footage does not change the fact that Delorean Pikyavit lost his life during a tragic encounter with the police. But SLCPD's prompt and transparent release of this footage means that individuals, organizations, and law enforcement can focus on analyzing what happened and searching for new policies and procedures to reduce the likelihood of a similar event happening in the future.
The footage shown on Wednesday was the first video made public following Salt Lake City's October 2017 adoption of a new protocol to release body-camera footage of officer-involved shootings within 10 business days of the incident. This policy came after the ACLU of Utah lobbied for eight months to release the bodycam and security footage of the shooting of Abdi Mohammad in February 2016.
The ACLU of Utah is glad to see SLCPD following the new body-camera footage protocol and holding a press conference to explain the footage and answer basic questions. We also support SLCPD's decision to publish this footage without redactions. We believe that timeliness, transparency, and independent investigations regarding all officer-involved shootings represent the best approach for law enforcement and the communities they serve to these tragic events.
- ACLU of Utah
PDF version of this statement (PDF)
