Poulsbo (Wash.) Officer Nick Hoke uses his body cam to record his interaction with a motorist at a routine traffic stop.
agencies to respond to the need for such technology. Com- petitive grants for purchasing body-worn cameras would have $17 million, $2 million for training and technical as- sistance, and $1 million to develop evaluation tools for studying best practices. Grants would be administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Of the 50 awards expected to be made to law enforce-
ment agencies, about one-third were to be directed toward smaller departments. Agencies must establish a strong pol- icy for camera implementation and a well-devised training program before purchasing cameras and the grants require a 50/50 in-kind or cash match. Each agency is responsible for the costs of long-term data storage.
Reduced Complaints and Use of Force Chief William A. Farrar, Rialto, Calif. Police Department, stud- ied the impact of his department’s use of eyeglass cameras. He reported, “The results of the study were truly amazing. Com- paring similar 12-month periods, we experienced signifi cant reductions. Use-of-force incidents were reduced by 59 percent and complaints were reduced by 88 percent.” Rialto Police Department experienced no chain-of-custody concerns with storage and handling of the videos. All videos are tagged, time/date stamped, and watermarked. The origi- nal video cannot be altered although a copy may be made for redaction purposes or other requests. Rialto offi cers may use lapel, collar, glasses, or even baseball cap mounts.
Legal Issues Procedural rules should be in place before utilizing body cams, including when they should be deployed and when it is acceptable to turn them off. There will always be ques- tions when cameras are turned off after being put into use, making it crucial to have policy regarding this. State laws also vary about privacy issues with making recordings,
Rialto (Calif.) Police Department Chief William Farrar studied the impact of his department’s use of eyeglass cams and found they experienced significant reductions. Use-of-force incidents were reduced by 59 percent and complaints were reduced by 88 percent.
with some states requiring all parties to consent and some having one-party consent. Several states are currently fi elding legislation to address body
cams and that may be the best venue for addressing privacy con- cerns. So far, only Illinois has passed legislation that requires a written policy to be in place for body cam implementation and minimum standards for camera use and data retention. Requiring officers to ask permission from subjects being recorded during a traffic stop or situation fraught with the potential for violence such as a domestic violence call does not make sense in a real-life situation and when state leg- islatures are formulating statutes, they need to keep the re- ality of police officer intervention in mind. There are also situations where subjects are unable to give informed con- sent due to mental issues, or alcohol or drug use. Recordings must be able to be verified as accurate and
not having any changes made and storage must be secure. This is a critical issue for body cam footage to be used in judicial proceedings and even when there is a public outcry and the validity of body cam storage is questioned.
FOIA Issues Alan Townsend, Poulsbo, Wash. Police Chief, has dealt with FOIA requests for body cam footage. “Washington’s FOIA or public disclosure laws are very cumbersome, with the liability on the agency for which the records have been
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