DEWEY BEACH, Del. - The ACLU of Delaware has filed a lawsuit against Dewey Beach alleging the town unlawfully denied access to six police officers’ body-worn camera footage.
The ACLU says it first requested the footage after receiving a report of a group of young people possibly facing racial discrimination in August of 2025.
According to court records, the ACLU formally called for the footage to be released on Jan. 15, 2026 under a Freedom of Information Act request. That same day, the Town of Dewey Beach rejected the ACLU’s FOIA, citing Delaware code that exempts investigatory files for law enforcement purposes, criminal records, and confidentiality under common or statutory law.
The ACLU says none of the youth were charged with a crime and there was no apparent investigation into their conduct.
“In its denial letter to the ACLU-DE, Dewey Beach invoked the investigatory file exemption but provided no indication the body worn camera footage was gathered following any allegation or report of a criminal or civil law enforcement investigation,” the ACLU said on Friday, March 13. “Dewey Beach also cited the criminal records exemption, but this exemption applies only where the requested records would invade privacy, and Dewey Beach provided no justification for how releasing the footage would do so.”
In the lawsuit, filed on March 12, the ACLU requests the Superior Court of the State of Delaware for New Castle County to declare Dewey’s denial of the requested footage a FOIA violation and to order the release of the body-worn camera footage.
WBOC reached out to Dewey Beach officials for comment but did not receive an immediate response Friday.