Via email
City of Oklahoma City
c/o Jason Perez, Assistant Municipal Counselor
jason.perez@okc.gov
Re: Public Access Counselor Advisement – Complaint No. 2025-109
Dear Counsel,
This is an official advisement regarding the above-referenced complaint (“Complaint”) submitted to this office pursuant to 51 O.S.Supp.2025, § 24A.40. The Public Access Counselor (“PAC”) received the Complaint on January 7, 2026 from Tommy Carson, a private citizen. The Complaint alleges that the City of Oklahoma City (“City”) improperly denied a request under the Oklahoma Open Records Act (“ORA”) for body camera footage and officer narrative reports associated with police responses at Mr. Carson’s residence on August 31, 2025. According to the Complaint, the City advised Mr. Carson that no body-worn camera footage exists and that no officer narrative reports were generated. Per the terms of 51 O.S.Supp.2025, § 24A.40(F), I conducted an initial review and determined the Complaint warranted a response from the City. In its response, the City argues that multiple records searches were conducted and no body camera footage exists regarding the police response at Mr. Carson’s residence on August 31, 2025. The City further responded that no initial incident reports exist, but it located supplemental incident reports in its search. However, the City maintains that it is not required to provide public access to an incident report that does not involve an arrest, pursuant to Title 51 O.S.Supp.2022, § 24A.8(A)(1) and (2).
Upon review of the records provided by the City and consideration of the City’s response, I have determined the following:
- The ORA in 51 O.S.Supp.2022, § 24A.8 sets forth the parameters for access to law enforcement records. Records listed in subsection (A), if kept by a law enforcement agency, must be made available to the public. The agency may, in its discretion, deny access to all other records unless a court “finds that the public interest or the interest of an individual outweighs the reason for denial.” Id. § 24A.8(B).
- The City claims that (1) there is no body camera footage for the incidents in question, and (2) it may withhold the reports from public view because no arrest was involved in this incident, citing 51 O.S.Supp.2022, § 24A.8(A)(1) and (2), and PAC Advisement 2025-002.
- The City credibly claims that it conducted a systematic search for body camera footage related to the incident, which yielded no results. In addition, the August 31, 2025 incidents did not result in an arrest and the City is justified in relying on PAC Advisement 2025-002 regarding public access to incident reports.
Based on the information available to me at this time, I conclude that the request for the body camera footage is moot as it apparently does not exist. I further conclude that the City has a good-faith legal basis to deny public access to the incident reports. Under title 51, section 24A.40(G), no further response to the above-referenced Complaint is required. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (405) 522-2771 or by email at opengov@oag.ok.gov.
Sincerely,
Anthony Sykes
Assistant Attorney General
Public Access Counselor
cc: Tommy Carson (via email)
