The Kentucky Attorney General's Office has ruled that the Newport Police Department did not violate the state's Open Records Act when responding to a records request about deleted body-worn camera footage from an April 2025 incident.

In a decision issued April 28, the Attorney General determined that the department properly provided records showing when body-worn camera footage from the incident was uploaded and subsequently deleted. Appellant Leah Kottmyer had requested written certification about whether responding officers were equipped with cameras, whether recordings were generated, details about their deletion, records of the search for the footage, and certification that no footage was ever created.

The key issue in the case centered on the scope of Kottmyer's original request for the body-worn camera footage itself, compared with her March 25 request for information about the deletion. The Attorney General stated that because Kottmyer's appeal involved her request for deletion information rather than the original footage request, the office lacked jurisdiction to evaluate whether the department's search was adequate.

"Once a public agency states affirmatively that a record does not exist, the burden shifts to the requester to make a prima facie case that the requested record does or should exist," according to the decision, which cited previous Kentucky court rulings.

The decision noted that Kentucky law governing body-worn camera retention is administered by the Department for Libraries and Archives, which establishes retention schedules for law enforcement agencies. The Attorney General's office stated it has no jurisdiction to determine whether the Newport Police Department complied with state public records retention laws.

The Attorney General's office found no violations by the Newport Police Department in its response to Kottmyer's March 25 request. Kottmyer has 30 days from the decision date to appeal to circuit court.