Records office denies appeal after finding no Tooele County dash‑cam or incident records for requested dates
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Summary
The Government Records Office found Tooele County Sheriff's Office had no incident reports or retained body‑cam/dash‑cam footage matching the petitioner's requested dates and denied the appeal; director advised the petitioner to seek deletion logs or make requests to other agencies if appropriate.
The Government Records Office denied an appeal by petitioner Jackson Prince seeking video and records of multiple child-exchange events involving Tooele County law enforcement, concluding the county has no incident records for the specific dates and times Prince requested and that body‑cam footage, if it ever existed for those dates, would have been purged under the county’s retention practices.
Jackson Prince appeared with his sister, Cynthia Prince, who described repeated police presence at child‑exchange locations and said officers followed the family on one occasion. "The police presence increased ... we were followed home by 1 of the Tooele sheriff office for 7 miles to Jackson's turn off to his home," Cynthia Prince testified. She said the family sought witnesses and legal advice and that the presence was emotionally harmful to the children.
Nathan Harris, Tooele County attorney, told the office that the county had received multiple GRAMA requests from Prince and that an earlier denial by the county misstated certain facts; after an internal review, the county submitted records showing its incident‑tracking system (Spillman) contained no incidents matching the 14 specific dates and times Prince identified. Harris told the director: "The dates and times that Mr. Prince has requested simply do not exist."
Harris explained that body‑worn and dash cameras are retained only when flagged for an investigation or charges and that unflagged footage is purged after roughly 90 days. "Body cam footage is not considered an incident, but would be part of the report that is filed in Spillman," he said.
Director Lonnie Pearson reviewed the materials provided by Tooele County and found the county had shown a reasonable explanation for the absence of records for the requested dates. Pearson said the petitioner bears the burden of showing additional records exist and that Prince had not met that burden for this appeal. "I find that you haven't presented any evidence that additional records exist that are within the scope of this request," Pearson said, and he denied the appeal.
Petitioners said they also seek deletion logs and that they plan federal inquiries into conduct by a third party identified in testimony; the director noted deletion logs are a separate records request and could be pursued independently. The office advised petitioners they may make additional or corrected requests to the appropriate agencies if they believe records exist elsewhere.
The hearing record shows appearances by Jackson Prince (petitioner), Cynthia Prince (witness), Nathan Harris (Tooele County attorney) and Pamela Weaver (Tooele County Sheriff's Office). The director's oral ruling denied the appeal; a written decision will follow under the office’s procedures.