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Dona Ana County Sheriffs Department Apprehensive About Body Cameras

Simon Thompson

With protests over police use of force throughout the country…many police departments are working to expand the use of body cameras.  But some departments including the Dona Ana County Sheriffs department are questioning the idea.

Dona County Sheriff’s department public information officer Kelly Jameson says before  audio or cameras were documenting police interactions- misconduct claims were largely evaluated through witness accounts and that often meant pitting an officer’s word against the word of the accused.

“We just had an incident  recently the deputy was involved in a shooting north of town in 2013 and that dash cam video was very useful in a court of law  to show the jury. This deputy acted within policy, it was a text book stop that unfortunately resulted in a shooting.  That cleared the deputy of any wrong doing because of that video, that was a dash cam video that happened to captured what was going on in front of the car we have been in several situations where a body worn camera  could have captured more information that the dash cam video could not have “ she says

Incidents like that show how cameras can save law enforcement agencies both money and time. And the Dona Ana County Sheriff department has dash cameras in every one of its officer’s vehicles.  The department has completed trials with body cameras.  But those cost more than $1000 dollars each.  With 60 officers that’s more than 60 thousand dollars.

“We are cash strapped as an department so it would be a sizable investment of ours to invest in cameras at this point” she says. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvuDUNcYCGI&feature=youtu.be

Other departments are finding the investment can pay off.   In 2013 the Rialto, California police department began a one year pilot study…outfitting its officers with body cameras.  The result?  A 50% drop in the number of use of force incidents and a more than 87% drop in complaints over the 12 month period.

Jameson says for the body cameras to be a worthwhile investment….policies on when police officers have to use them must be defined.   She adds dash cams don’t waste limited storage for footage on inconsequential police activity.

“Dash cam video is in acted when certain things happen; when a unit go’s above  the posted speed limit or is in a pursuit  the dash cam video will engage  when  the officers assault weapon is removed from it’s holster,   behind the deputies seat the dash cam video is engaged. The dash cam video can also be engaged  remotely in the event of shots fired  - or on a routine  traffic stop the dash cam is also engaged." she says

The amount of money the Dona Ana County Sheriffs department has paid out in police misconduct settlements in the last 4 years was not made immediately available.  Though Jameson acknowledges body camera footage can be valuable the use of cameras also raises privacy issues including filming without consent and filming minors.

“We are dealing with people in the community that don’t always want to be stopped that don’t  always want to follow the law and don’t always want to be on tape  and that is going to be an issue in the future when body worn cameras  are in place in every department across the nation you are going to see people filing law suits because they are going to feel like there rights are violated and I think that  this is going to be an issue in years to come -  with certain situations that we don’t for see yet” she says. 

Jameson says the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Department wants to evaluate the experience of other local agencies before making an investment in body cameras.  She adds that a major purchase will also be contingent on funding and President Obama’s announced plan to provide 50.000 body cameras to departments nationwide.