Seattle Police Department subpoenas five news outlets for protest photos, videos

The Seattle Police Department issued a subpoena to the five largest media organizations in the metro area on June 18, 2020, requesting that each outlet turn over raw photos and video captured during one day of demonstrations.

Protests against police violence have taken place in more than 70 cities across the country, sparked by a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

In the days following Floyd’s death, Seattle saw both peaceful and violent protests, with Saturday, May 30, being especially turbulent: The Seattle Times reported that 27 people were arrested that day, multiple police vehicles were damaged and burned, stores were looted and police deployed tear gas and other projectiles on protesters.

The legal filing ordered the five outlets — KIRO 7 News, KING 5 News, KOMO 4 News, KCPQ News and the Times — to appear for a hearing on June 29 with all video footage and photographs taken on May 30 from 3:30-5 p.m. within a four block radius.

Representatives from the outlets did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

According to the subpoena, the police are seeking the images to aid in an ongoing investigation to identify multiple individuals who allegedly stole firearms from police vehicles and one who allegedly committed multiple arsons within that area.

In an affidavit filed with the subpoena, Detective Michael Magan said that four rifles and a semi-automatic pistol were stolen from unmarked vehicles on 6th Avenue, and that six SPD vehicles were “heavily damaged by vandals” and set on fire.

Three of the rifles were recovered that day, two of them with the help of an armed security guard for Fox affiliate KCPQ, Magan said in the affidavit. He added that the other two weapons remained unaccounted for.

On June 29, the outlets filed a joint brief objecting to the subpoena and requesting that it be quashed. In the brief, they argue that the subpoena not only violates the First Amendment and the Washington state shield law, but is also overly broad and places an undue burden on the outlets.

“SPD, acting through outside counsel, has targeted Seattle’s five largest news outlets with an expansive demand for vast amounts of unaired news footage and unpublished news photographs,” Eric Stahl, lawyer for the outlets, wrote in the brief. “The Subpoena is a procedurally irregular, overbroad and impermissible assault on the independence of the press.”

In an amicus brief filed the same day, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press highlighted the dangers of degrading the public’s perception of the media as independent from the government, especially law enforcement.

“Enforcement of the Subpoena could mislead the public into perceiving reporters at protests as a mere arm of law enforcement,” RCFP’s brief states, “thus eroding public trust in the news media and increasing the already-significant risk of physical harm that journalists face when covering protests.”

RCFP, a partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, highlighted the recent case of Arizona journalist Eric Rosenwald, who was repeatedly pushed, punched and kicked by individuals at a demonstration in Tucson who accused him of being “with the police.”

Similarly, the Times reported that one of the outlet’s photographers was punched in the face by an individual at a recent protest, and that newspaper staff members have had to repeatedly explain that they are independent.

As of press time, the judge had not responded to the outlets’ request to quash the subpoena.

Brain Esler, an outside attorney representing the police department, told the Times that no actions will be taken to enforce the subpoena until a July 16 Superior Court hearing and subsequent ruling. Esler did not respond to the Tracker’s emailed request for comment.