I really can't imagine that there would be evidence of malfeasance on the bodycam footage.
Rekieta and his lawyer would presumably have reviewed the footage pre-omnibus. If there was clear evidence of wrongdoing or procedural failures from the police, they would have hammered on this ages ago. As it is, most of Rekietas protests have amounted to little more than impotent whining.
Perhaps there could be evidence of unprofessional conduct from officers in the videos that the police would prefer not to be disclosed (ie, making comments on the mess, making disparaging comments about drug addicts, etc.) but if there was anything that was seriously wrong with the police conduct in the videos, we would have heard about it long ago.
It would seem more likely that the hesitancy to release the footage is a personal decision.
Some options to consider:
- Doing a favor for Rekieta (or someone else with an interest to protect Rekieta).
- Personal conviction to not want to embarrass someone further (unlikely since almost all police action risks embarrassing someone, however considering this is a smaller community with multiple children involved maybe not so unlikely).
- Abundance of caution (if the sheriff is known to be a cautious person they may prefer to defer a decision like this until there are no possible question marks over the order).
My hope is for the abundance of caution option, since that will likely result in a positive outcome for release of the footage after resolution of the matter.