Case Name: Melamed v. City of Philadelphia Police Department

Case Number: 260600531

Court: Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas

Clients: Samantha Melamed and The Philadelphia Inquirer

Background: On April 7, 2026, officers from the City of Philadelphia Police Department shot and killed 75-year-old Anthony McKinley. Police said McKinley fired at the officers first.

Twelve days after the shooting, Samantha Melamed, a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, filed a request for police body-worn camera footage of the confrontation under Pennsylvania’s Act 22, which governs access to video and audio recordings created by law enforcement agencies. 

The department denied Melamed’s request, claiming that the recordings are exempt from disclosure because they contain confidential or victim information. The denial also said the requested footage could be withheld “to the extent” it contains investigative information, but it didn’t determine that the footage indeed contained the information.

Melamed and The Inquirer filed this lawsuit against the Philadelphia Police Department, arguing the denial was “arbitrary and capricious,” and the public interest in accessing the recordings outweighs the department’s interests in keeping them secret. Melamed and The Inquirer are represented by the Reporters Committee’s Pennsylvania-based attorney, Paula Knudsen Burke, and RCFP Staff Attorney Gunita Singh.

Quote: “(A)ccess to the requested footage will give the public, the press, and police departments access the country attempting to be more responsive to the communities they serve a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding the City’s interactions with its community,” the petition argues.  

Related: Burke and Singh have helped Pennsylvania journalists and newsrooms bring a series of Act 22 cases that have shook loose hours of police bodycam footage in the public interest. Read more on their fight for police transparency in the Keystone State here.

Filings:

2026-05-29: Petition for review