Catching crime on tape
Lodi police body cameras go live
Officers all carry handguns, handcuffs and badges, but now residents may notice new black boxes attached to their uniforms.
In an effort to encourage greater transparency with the public, Lodi Police Department has begun using body cameras as of Nov. 30.
The department began the search for the best body cameras to put in practice about two years ago, since technology has improved allowing for longer battery life, better recording quality and ease of use in handling the captured video as evidence.
There were many options to choose from, including cameras with night vision, cameras that were wearable as glasses and ones that attach to the uniform with powerful magnets.
Although night vision allows the video to capture events happening in dark areas, ultimately the video would not provide an accurate depiction of what the officer would be able to see in that scenario, according to Lodi Police Lt. Sierra Brucia. Cameras mounted on clear glasses proved to be impractical for officers who needed to wear prescription glasses and didn’t offer the ability to wear sunglasses.
Some officers are just not comfortable wearing any sort of glasses, Brucia said.
“There’s a lot of evidence out there that (using body cameras) helps minimize use of force and minimize citizen complaints.” LT. SIERRA BRUCIA LODI POLICE DEPARTMENT
“Some of the biggest issues were trying to figure out what to do with the videos once they’ve been collected,” said Sgt. Eric Versteeg.
In setting out to use this technology, new policies would have to be made to figure out how the cameras would be used and what to do with the videos, which factored into the decisions made in purchasing the equipment.
The best fit for the department turned out to be a camera produced by the Taser company called the Axon Body 2. Lodi Police Department has a five-year contract with Taser at a cost of $350,000 for the equipment, phones, maintenance and video storage.
Cameras will be upgraded in two-and-a-half years under this contract and an expert from the company will be on hand to testify in court regarding the technology.
How the body camera works
The body camera is contained in a small square black box about the size of the palm of a person’s hand and is attached with strong magnets from inside of the officer’s uniform. It has a 142-degree field of vision from the slightly fish-eyed lens and records at 720p resolution.
Before the camera is activated, it will automatically record a 30-second buffer with no audio until the officer taps the button twice to record.
“If an officer has to jump out of a car to chase after somebody and they don’t have a chance to activate their camera right away, once they do, hopefully it will catch them jumping out of the car and taking actions before they turned on the camera,” Versteeg said. This would depend on if jumping out of the car was part of that 30-second buffer.
While recording, a red light on the camera will flash, letting the officer know it’s recording. It will also periodically beep and buzz letting the officer know that it is still on. To turn it off, officers must hold down the button for a few seconds.
Other technology used with the Axon Body 2 cameras
The cameras come with connected iPhone 5s smart phones on which officers will be able to review video footage moments after it has been recorded. This is also where officers can tag the video with the associated case number and refer to the footage for help in writing police reports on incidents.
The phone also functions as a work phone for officers to be able to give out to citizens if they need to be contacted. It gives officers the opportunity to use different apps that can help with their job such as language translation and pill identification, Brucia said.
The cameras hold charge for about 12 hours and can hold 20 hours of video and take 10 to 12 hours to upload the video to storage.
At the end of a shift, officers will return the cameras to a docking station, where the video will be uploaded to a cloud-based storage site for law enforcement called Evidence.com. Lodi PD has reserved 12.5 terabytes of space to store their videos. The length of time they keep the videos is determined by how long they need to be held as evidence for the courts. Something like a traffic stop would be held for two years while video regarding certain felonies is held from five years to indefinitely depending on the case, according to Versteeg, who is the administrator tasked with managing the videos.
Lawyers and investigators — or citizens who submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — who would like to review video would be given a secure link to stream the video. Through the website, people’s faces and things like license plates can be redacted, meaning they are usually blurred out, to maintain privacy when necessary.
When do officers record?
Any time officers believe they may encounter confrontation, conduct an arrest or need to use force, such as drawing a handgun or a Taser, are all times when officers would likely be recording.
Officers will take into consideration if someone asks not to be recorded, to determine whether they should or should not record.
Officers have the legal right to record, however, during interviews with victims of sexual assault or investigating in a private place like a locker room where people are changing clothes, it may be necessary to point the camera away to just capture the audio or simply not record, Brucia said.
While walking around the workplace or when speaking with the public for non-criminal investigations, officers are not typically going to be recording.
A wireless signal is attached to all the police vehicles now to activate all of the cameras within a 30- to40-foot radius if the lights and sirens go on or if a rifle is taken from the vehicle’s gun rack.
The department is still getting used to turning on and off the cameras and have been practicing building up the muscle memory to reach for the button. Signs are posted as patrol cars leave the back lot, reminding officers to turn on their cameras.
“Hopefully, within a month or two it really will be second nature to our officers,” Brucia said.
Why wear body cameras?
Since the body cameras went live throughout the police force, officers have captured more than 3,000 videos. Officers are beginning to see the value in wearing the cameras — not just for transparency, but also for reviewing an incident to write a report.
“There’s a lot of evidence out there that it helps minimize use of force and minimize citizen complaints,” Brucia said.
Not only do the cameras ensure that officers consider remaining on their best behavior, but citizens and suspects tend to behave better as well knowing that they’re being recorded, he said.
If a citizen files a complaint against an officer, the department leaders will be able to quickly review footage of an incident to determine if any misconduct occurred.
In recent years, officers around the country have been under scrutiny for incidents in which citizens used their cell phones to record and share video of police interactions with suspects and other citizens. Police having their own video footage can also protect officers and provide proof that use of force was required, Versteeg said.
However, officers understand the limitations body cameras have.
Cameras can get knocked away, officers can forget to turn them on while concerned for their safety, the 30second buffer may miss something, or their hands holding up a handgun could obscure the video at a certain angle.
“Videos aren’t perfect. They don’t capture everything, but they help lend additional evidence to a witness statement, a suspect statement, or an officer statement,” Brucia said.