The deletion of videos from "body cams" worn by Dallas police officers could potentially affect "thousands of cases," according to a statement from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday.
The DA's office said it was notified by Dallas police in March that a review by its "Body Worn Camera Team" had determined that some older videos between 2016 and 2021 had been deleted "due to the assigned retention periods at the time."
Prosecutors and DPD then began working on coming up with a process to review criminal cases that might be affected.
"Through triaging efforts, our office generated a list of 113 cases set for trial at that time that involved death of the complainant," the statement reads. "DPD’s DME (Digital Media Evidence) Unit then conducted a review of these cases, commonly referred to as a 'triple check,' for any missing video; and, while some cases were not affected, others were."
DPD said in a statement Tuesday nearly 9,000 video files were submitted for those cases and 572 had been deleted.
People involved in affected cases received an audit trail of the deleted videos, the DA's office said.
A November 2022 review by the Dallas Police Department revealed about 52,000 of its digital files were improperly categorized, which a Dallas Morning News report brought to light. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in February he hadn't learned about the files until reading media reports.
The DPD statement said the department has taken continual steps to comply with evidence law and efficiently manage digital files, including bumping the retention period for video files up to a two-year minimum and adding staff to DPD's Digital Media Evidence team.
The DA's office's statement notes that the Dallas Police Department is "this office's largest filing agency."
"As a result, this video file deletion issue potentially affects thousands of cases," the statement reads. "Neither this office nor DPD has the personnel nor capacity to proactively review each case filed during the relevant time period."
The statement said a notification about the deletions has been published on the DA's website, and the local bar associations also have been notified.
The DA's office said it had not reviewed any cases so far "in which any deleted video proved to be material to the case."
"Going forward, should defense attorneys have questions or wish to request a review of a specific disposed case for the video files deletion issue, a protocol has been provided by which they should make that request," the statement said.
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