The officers also used force 60 percent less often, according to the study. In Rialto, Calif., between February 2012 and July 2013, the Rialto police had an 88 percent decline in filed complaints after just half of its uniformed officers started wearing body cameras. There’s only been one long-term study done on effectiveness of police body cameras, but the results were striking. “It became kind of a grassroots movement.” Cops and citizens benefit “In many ways, this came about because of a groundswell of support from police officers themselves,” Wexler said. Still, cops give the cameras high marks in cities that have implemented programs so far. In cities where body cameras are already out on the street, questions have arisen regarding data privacy and storage of the video. Wexler and his group are two months away from releasing policy recommendations for police departments across the country using body cameras or interested in doing so. (The City of Minneapolis alone has paid out more than $9 million in settlements and judgments in police-related lawsuits since 2009.)īut the technology isn’t perfect. For some, that’s a small price to pay in a city where millions of dollars were paid out in police settlements last year. Minneapolis City Council members set aside $400,000 for the cameras in December, with expectations that outfitting officers could cost around $650,000 when the program is fully implemented. Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau is drafting a policy to implement police body cameras, spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington said, but there’s no timeline to complete that process. “Police departments felt it was important to tell the whole story.”
“It’s a very hot topic in police departments right now,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. Minneapolis is one of several major metropolitan police departments looking into the cameras, and uniformed officers with the Duluth Police Department will soon be wearing cameras. These so-called “body cams” are being used in a handful of cities in Minnesota and around the country, and they are quickly gaining popularity in police departments. Police departments have used squad car cameras for years, but new technology allows them to wear cameras so small they can be attached to their collar or even a pair of sunglasses. In a world where most people carry a camera on their phone, some police officers want to take video of their own.
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