Judge sides with city of Puyallup in jail camera case

A federal judge has decided the city of Puyallup did not violate the privacy of DUI suspects by filming them in the jail’s holding cell.

“We’re very pleased with the jury’s verdict. We have faith in the system that justice would prevail. And today, justice did prevail,” Police Captain Scott Engle told KIRO Radio.

The cameras caught people changing their clothes and using the toilet after they’d been arrested for investigation of DUI. Eleven women and one man sued the city last summer, claiming it violated their right to privacy.

One of the alleged victims said the jail staff told her to undress in what she believed to be a private cell. After she had changed into a jail uniform, she said the jailer forced her to take off her clothes again.

“An officer came in and says something to her and she takes her jail pants off and then her panties,” attorney James Egan had told KIRO Radio. “I thought, ‘This has got to stop.'”

He said he began filing public disclosure requests for jail video and determined there was “significant pattern” and of jail officers orchestrating “peep shows.”

The city initially denied those requests, but eventually turned over thousand of hours of video, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.

The jail has turned off some cameras and blurred spots where someone might be using the toilet so that the city would not be put into a position of embarrassing suspects under future public records requests.

Engle said the cameras were always just about safety.

“Many times in our city jail we operate with one or two staff members on. We don’t have the ability to have eyes in all sections of the jail at all times. The jail cameras allowed us to have a means to monitor the jail areas,” he said.

KIRO Radio’s Jillian Raftery contributed to this report.