WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach ordered Broward County authorities on Wednesday to release the surveillance video of the Parkland school shooting response.
Attorneys for the Broward County School Board and the Broward State Attorney's Office argued against it, saying that the release of the video put the security at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at risk and that the video was considered "criminal investigation information."
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The First Amendment Foundation joined media organizations, including CNN, in a lawsuit requesting the release of the surveillance footage.
Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Levenson had ruled in April that the statutory exemptions did not bar the disclosure and the video revealed very little information about the school's security system. The school board and the state attorney's office appealed his decision. The Broward's Sheriff's Office did not.
After the Valentine's Day massacre left 17 dead, officers from the Coral Springs Police Department accused Broward Sheriff's Office deputies of taking cover outside while the gunman was shooting inside the school and blended in with the crowd to leave campus.
Gov. Rick Scott's commission to investigate the Parkland shooting learned from BSO deputies that there were communications issues related to the way the dispatch system was set up. Broward Sheriff Scott Israel accused former Deputy Scot Peterson, the school's resource officer, of acting like a coward at the time of the shooting. It's an accusation Peterson denies.
