FOR YEARS, Police Chief Mike Reese has dreamed of outfitting every police cruiser with a dashboard camera—to produce audiovisual records of police encounters for court cases or, when needed, to ferret out the truth in misconduct claims.
Almost a year after the police bureau received $800,000 to expand a car-camera pilot program—enough for 50 or so cameras—none of that money has been spent. And now Mayor Charlie Hales, the city’s police commissioner, has another idea.
Echoing the clamor of the federal judge who approved the city’s police reform settlement last month, Hales now wants to put cameras directly on officers’ lapels.
Portland’s already experimented with the body-mounted devices, putting them on traffic officers, officials say. But by going even further, Portland would follow cities across the country who see the new technology as a way to build trust among citizens, while hopefully reducing the amount of force police use in otherwise routine encounters.
Hales’ office says the police bureau will release a report—”soon”— examining how much body cameras might cost, how the bureau would deal with privacy issues related to recordings, and also how the bureau might pay for other ongoing requirements, like paying someone to run the camera program and paying for space to store all the data. The Oregonian first reported Hales’ interest this month.
“We want to spend a little time thinking about [all] that,” says Dana Haynes, Hales’ spokesman.
Haynes says the mayor expects to spend the money already allocated for cameras instead of pushing new spending.
But not all accountability advocates are terribly excited. Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch says Oregon law sets strict limits on how long and whether police can retain recordings of people who aren’t suspected of crimes.
Nor, he says, should cameras preclude other policy changes meant to promote discipline and ease the use of force.
“Having cops wear body cameras,” he says, “is not the be all and end all of accountability.”
How about the police just stop confiscating cameras of innocent bystanders who record police harassment?
Dan Handelman and Copwatch are “not the be all and end all of accountability.”
Body cams are a great start and Dan Handelman is the mandelman. Nice reporting Theriault
The shit works. In the cities that have chosen to outfit their officers with lapel cameras police use of force incidents dropped by an average of 60%. Complains against officers also dropped by a staggering 88%. If these cameras help prevent even one incident of excessive force or wrongful death (and the accompanying lawsuits), they are obviously worth it.
^^^ The question is, do complaints against officers drop because officers change their behavior, or because potential complainants realize that the recordings will not sustain the complaint? I see both as possibilities, and not sure how to determine which is more likely.
^^^ The camera solves both possibilities, so it’s good either way, no?
Video recordings are not admissible as evidence in court, without corroborating testimony from a first hand witness. So, unless the police kill all the witnesses, then the video recordings ought to be obtainable by subpoena; provided of course that the evidence isn’t also disposed of.
Body cameras and recent reform is not enough. Police training should be changed to reflect deescalation and non-violence. There should be a new rapid-response team that specializes in mental crisis, without police, who often escalate situations, (such as the beating of that 16-yr-old this sunday). The reforms don’t address racism in the police force. The Independent Review Board should be given more power and oversight. Police should stop attacking protesters indiscriminately. Police forces across the country should be de-militarized, that means no more tanks, grenade launchers, and no more paramilitary raids of peoples homes, like Gresham’s recent late-night raid caught on camera. The Portland Police should fire Mark Kroger because of his “Honor Tree” to nazi soldiers and because of his history of violence, not give him $5k and expunge his record. Further, when a police involved shooting occurs, police should not be given three days to formulate their statement. Their statement should be taken almost immediately after the incident. Their uniform should not protect them from their actions. Joint Terrorism Task Force should leave Portland because that organization invades our privacy and is used to investigate activists, not for our protection.
Justice For The Gurule Brothers: March On North precinct, Friday Sept. 19th, 5pm @ Alberta Park