Why Uvalde Shooting Body Cam Footage Won't Be Released

Texas officials have blocked the release of body cam footage from the deadly shooting in Uvalde. According to NewsNation, officials said it could help future criminals go through with similar attacks.

The body cam footage could also give criminals "invaluable information" about how police investigations about shootings are conducted.

"Knowing the intelligence and response capabilities of department personnel and where those employees focus their attention will compromise law enforcement capabilities (by helping) criminals to anticipate weakness in law enforcement procedures and alter their methods of operation in order to avoid detection and apprehension," officials said in a statement.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin denied the release of body cam footage in a statement, saying the city and the Uvalde Police Department "strive for transparency every day." A retired police chief from Fort Worth said the only reason he can think of for not wanting to release the body cam footage is if there were "tactical advancements made by police they do not want released to the public," according to NewsNation.

"The challenge is you can never release information that would be sacrificing officer safety on future deployments, especially SWAT teams. However, body cam technology and the editing capabilities of redacting and blurring and digitizing a lot of this information makes it almost like you can’t even understand what the movements are perceived to be," Jeff Halstead said.

This news comes as new details have emerged regarding law enforcement's response during the shooting. Police waited for 45 minutes in the hallway inside the school while the gunman was inside a classroom, NewsNation reported. All in all, it took 77 minutes from the time police arrived on the scene to when the shooter was killed.