Simon McCormack 09/05/2014 | Huffington Post

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson lied when he said he had received "many" specific requests for the videotape that allegedly shows Michael Brown robbing a convenience store, according to a new report.

"All I did -- what I did was -- was release the videotape to you, because I had to," Jackson told reporters on Aug. 15 when asked why he released the robbery footage. "I’d been sitting on it, but I -- too many people put in a [Freedom of Information Act] request for that thing, and I had to release that tape to you."

Writing for The Blot, Matthew Keys reports that the police department did not receive any specific requests for the videotape.

"A review of open records requests sent to the Ferguson Police Department found that no news organization, reporter or individual specifically sought the release of the surveillance tape before police distributed it on Aug. 15," Keys writes.

There was one reporter, Joel Currier with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who asked for any and all evidence "leading up to" Brown’s death in a FOIA request. The request could have possibly included the tape, since the incident report on the robbery identifies Brown as a suspect in the crime.

Currier told The Huffington Post's Matt Sledge in a tweet that "I can't recall if I knew of robbery at the time of request. I made it broad in hopes of getting as much material as possible."

In another tweet, he added, "I think I may have been hearing rumors of a robbery but nothing confirmed."

Journalist Andrew Perez also said that he has tried to get the documents to show who sent FOIA requests for the recording.

"I requested all requests for the videotape too, and they produced a ton of docs but no requests for the tape," Perez tweeted.

Perez also tweeted that, when asked, Ferguson Police spokesperson Tim Zoll couldn't think of any specific requests for the tape.

Requests for comment were not immediately returned by Chief Jackson or the Ferguson Police Department.

Authorities have still not released the incident report for Brown's killing. The St. Louis County Police Department is in charge of deciding when that report will be released.

Ryan J. Reilly and Matt Sledge contributed reporting.