State law keeps UNCW from releasing dash cam of incident with teacher

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A state law that went into effect last fall is keeping UNCW from releasing video of a police officer’s encounter with a faculty member who claims police racially profiled him.

The law, which began Oct. 1, 2016, removed dash and body camera video from the public record. Proponents say it protects evidence needed for trial, while critics say it limits the ability of the public to check law enforcement.

UNCW chemistry lecturer Rajan Juniku says he believes he was racially profiled Tuesday when a UNCW police officer confronted him on campus. UNCW says the officer was responding to a call from someone who saw Juniku with his hands in the pockets of a heavy jacket on a warm day looked suspicious. The university today released the call to police that led to the encounter. In it the operator pushes the caller to provide a description of the man’s possible race. Juniku, who is from Kosovo, said he asked the officer if it was because he looks Middle Eastern.

A source tells WWAY a police dash cam video shows a much calmer scene of the encounter between Juniku and the officer than what Juniku’s wife described Tuesday in a Facebook post that went viral. WWAY requested the video from UNCW citing an exclusion in the state’s public records law that allows agencies to release otherwise protected records if they may impact public confidence in the agency. The university denied the station’s request.

“The video recording falls more specifically under NCGS §132-1.4A,” UNCW Assistant General Counsel Steven Miller said in an e-mailed response. “As mandated under that statute, UNCW cannot release the recording to WWAY unless the conditions contained in NCGS §132-1.4A(g) are satisfied and a court order is issued. Consequently, UNCW is unable to produce the video recording at this time.”

In other words, WWAY, other media outlets or any member of the public would have to go to court to get access to the video.

The law does allow the recording to be shown to anyone who is in the video. Juniku said UNCW Police let him view the video today, but he said he, too, would need to get a court order to get a copy of it.