UPDATE – Social Media lesson: Military Police request civilian PIO delete tweets from F-16 Crash
At the request of Military Police on location at crash site I will be deleting any video and pictures posted on Social Media of crash area
— Mark Brady (@PIOMarkBrady) April 5, 2017
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Previous coverage of F-16 crash
PGFD PIO explains military police request to delete video from his phone
This is an interesting development from the scene of the F-16 crash west of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland this (Wednesday) morning. Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Chief Spokesman Mark Brady tweets that he was asked by Military Police at the scene to delete any video and pictures of the the crash area that he shared.
Below are still images of two of the videos Brady tweeted this morning from the neighborhood adjacent to the wooded area where the jet crashed. While the videos are no longer available, it should be noted that they already had been widely shared for a couple of hours on TV news and mainstream media websites around the world.
In addition, there are many other pictures (see below) from the public that actually show the pilot along with other images that show more detail than those from PIO Brady.
There is probably something to learn here for civilian public safety PIOs dealing with military authorities. Also, could a PIO deleting tweets become an open records/FOIA issue (good question for Curt Varone)?
UPDATE
Ask and I receive. My friend FireLawBlog.com publisher/lawyer/firefighter Curt Varone via Facebook agrees there are potential open records issues with a PIO deleting tweets:
The Tweets themselves could be public records depending on who posted them… and state law public records issues… they still would have to be archived in they were public records… LOTS OF ISSUES…
If the request was to actually delete photos or video (not mentioned), Curt points out that would be potential evidence and not something a trained police officer should request anyone to delete or destroy.
Cell phone video pic. Pilot of F-16 in mid-parachute from aircraft during #MD #jetcrash near #DC. Pentagon says pilot not seriously injured pic.twitter.com/CbK8UPDJKY
— Tom Fitzgerald (@FitzFox5DC) April 5, 2017
This is the USAF pilot after safe ejection and descent pic.twitter.com/3kLV9NOhx2
— Brad Bell (@Brad7News) April 5, 2017
Another view of down fighter pilot. I'm told his primary concern was for safety of those on the ground @ABC7News pic.twitter.com/MG7347hluP
— Brad Bell (@Brad7News) April 5, 2017
This is scene in neighborhood where F-16 crashed pic.twitter.com/lUDCGH357N
— Brad Bell (@Brad7News) April 5, 2017
