Self-appointed civilian oversight person for the Englewood, Colorado, police department, Regan Benson continued her campaign to monitor police in the city on Friday as she tested the city’s policies involving bodycam footage.
Benson started her Friday journey in the Englewood Civic Center on her way to the records person on the third floor. She said she was seeking to have a letter to Englewood Police Chief Sam Watson and Englewood City Attorney Tamara Niles stamped as received and duplicated.
The letter was a notice of a formal law enforcement misconduct complaint and information request in relation to an October incident where a homeless man was allegedly beaten in an Englewood park after refusing to give his identification to police officers.
Benson’s notice demands all bodycam footage of the incident within 45 days of the receipt of the notification and claims that excessive force was used against the man along with a violation of his constitutional rights. She also demanded a notice in writing of which laws would prevent the release of the footage to her.
After having a copy of the notice stamped and having left that copy with the information worker for the city attorney, Benson headed to the Englewood Police Department. During the drive, Benson stated that she was the only person proving any sort of oversight to Englewood Police and would continue to do so in her unofficial capacity.
Benson was also outraged that a previous request for bodycam footage was estimated at $500 for a deposit for the footage provided. She also claimed that she was owed $25 for a deposit made for bodycam footage request that went unanswered in 2023.
As with previous livestreams, Benson arrived late to the Englewood police department and the building had closed to the public as it was after 4PM. Outraged, Benson stood in a small lobby area and chastised the worker who answered the phone and demanded that they send someone to take her complaint.
Duty Patrol Sargent Adam Wright answered Benson’s call but was unable to find someone to stamp Benson’s paperwork. Benson became incensed when Wright explained that he was the highest-ranking officer on duty at the time, now twenty minutes past the close of the building on a holiday weekend, and that while he could accept the paperwork, it would not be delivered to the police chief until Monday.
When asked if she had previously encountered Wright, the sergeant confirmed that they had a previous encounter where Benson berated him while on a traffic stop. Wright’s account puzzled Benson, who, after having a cordial exchange with Wright as he took her paperwork, later determined that Wright deserved any negative encounter he had with her.
Benson ended the livestream by stating that most of time has been currently taken up by her federal and state level lawsuits against police forces in Colorado and encouraged her viewers to get PACER accounts to follow her exploits.
The YouTuber is expected to return to live streaming Monday night at the next Englewood City Council meeting.
Tip Jar
ReallyCoolNews is a free daily publication devoted to the First Amendment Auditing community. If you’d like to support the publication/help keep the author fed/help support his animals, we offer the following ways to contribute:
Direct Money Gifting:
CashApp: https://cash.me/$reallycoolsite
Paypal: https://paypal.me/ReallyCoolSite?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b8144e31
Amazon Registry Gifting:
Paper Needs Registry: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2XZ4NUUYNXZH5
Critter Registry: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/1GACKBD5N136L
Buy Something Neat Registry: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2BKN32QZLN1OD
Donations go towards keeping the lights on, feeding critters, improving the site and paying site hosting costs and future upgrades.
Share this:
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)