Mendez

ORDER GRANTING NON-PARTY MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS’ MOTION TO INTERVENE AND UNSEAL DOCUMENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

Tins civil rights action arose when police officers’ detention of suspected bicycle thieves turned into a shooting spree—resulting in several injuries and the death of one plaintiff.

*785 Presently before the Court is a motion filed by non-party media' organizations Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, The Associated Press, and Bloomberg, L.P. (collectively, “Media Organizations”) to intervene for the limited purpose of requesting the unsealing of video footage submitted by the parties in connection with a motion for summary judgment. (Dkt. 248.) The Media Organizations move to unseal the subject video footage on First Amendment grounds, asserting the public’s interest in accessing this footage.

The motion at bar requires the Court to decide whether to unseal video footage taken by police officers’ car cameras—thus granting non-party media organizations and the public access to footage of the shooting and surrounding events. This issue arises against a backdrop of tension and heightened scrutiny in the wake of several widely publicized and controversial uses of force by the…