Thoughts on police body Cameras?

Thoughts on police body Cameras?

For many communities, public safety is a major concern—especially as budgets are cut and populations continue to grow. Placing small cameras on police is a fast-growing trend in policing. The cameras -- which are small enough to fit on a vest, an officer’s collar or on eyewear may be an important tool to porducing tangible evidence of criminality; to altering the public’s behavior (as speed camera’s reduce inattentive driving  in school and construction zones) and enhancing police accountability. Many police departments have some or all of their officers wearing body cameras, including Atlantic City, N.J.; Ferguson, Mo. (as of last week); Los Angeles (one of the nation's largest police departments); Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix; San Diego and Seattle.

Using video to record police interactions is not new. In the past decade, police departments have installed more than 17,500 cameras in police cars, according to the International Association of Police Chiefs (IACP). The initial reason for the dashboard cameras was to improve officer safety and mitigate allegations of racial profiling. But police departments also discovered the cameras provide substantive evidence and improved officer conduct.

But body cameras, like safe zone speed and right light cameras have their critics.

Libertarians see privacy concerns when police venture inside someone’s home and other private areas. In addition, situations involving children and victims of domestic abuse must be treated sensitively. Recently, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a report in support of body cameras but called for measures to ensure police officers do nothing to edit the recordings and for stricter limits on officers' ability to choose when to use the camera.

Questions have arisen about the reliability of the technology and the costs (an entire system with cameras, storage and software can run from several hundred thousand dollars into the millions of dollars, according to some estimates). When an officer comes in from a shift, he or she attaches the device to a docking station, which automatically downloads the recording to a third-party storage facility.

Cameras-body, speed and intersection- are coming into wide use by towns, cities public agencies and law enforcement. Government departments that try to use new technology like body cameras before they have promulgated policies about use, and privacy and chain of evidential custody, invite trouble.  Many manufacturers and distributors of cameras like Xerox have drafted model guidance’s  for these nescient technologies -including wearable cameras.

Martin Milita is a senior director of Duane Morris Government Strategies. Duane Morris Government Strategies is an ancillary business of international law firm Duane Morris LLP, one of the 100 largest law firms (700+ attorneys) in the United States and abroad.  Martin Milita is retained by Xerox to represent the company before the New Jersey Legislative and Executive branch departments tackling all forms of government relations and public affairs. Martin Milita believes that every community deserves safe streets. That’s why he advocates installing, operating and maintaining customizable, automated, photo-enforcement solutions, including red light,  safe zone speed, school bus, and wearable cameras.