First Amendment: State Police Must Turn Over Dashboard Video From Car Chase

The NJ State Police have been ordered to turn over a video of a car chase that took place throughout several North Jersey counties in 2014, and which may contain footage of a trooper kicking one of the suspects in the head.

Following an Open Public Records request, a Mercer County Superior Court judge ruled that state police must turn over dashboard camera video of the car chase to NJ Advance Media.

The video allegedly captured footage of the arrest of Brandon Clemens and Tahiry Baskerville of Newark, who were charged with striking three police cars during a car chase in 2014.

A NJ Superior Court judge ruled in 2014 that the police videos are public records and must be disclosed unless they meet certain exemptions.

State police had argued that the dashboard video from the arrest of Clemens and Baskerville are exempt because they are “criminal investigatory records.”

File photo by Floris Oosterveld via flickr