Sheriff says videos used against law officers
Gonzales rules out body cams for deputies
Despite a recent spate of shootings involving deputies over the past four months, Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales continues to refuse to consider equipping his staff with body-worn cameras and has said he worries video recordings would be manipulated by the media.
“They’re being used against agencies for the adjudication of cases and for the media to take very small parts of those recordings and make a story,” Gonzales said in a news conference Monday. “There is nothing showing they create trust in law enforcement.”
Gonzales routinely waits several days before releasing information about a shooting and still has not provided any information about two people who were found dead after deputies opened fire on a stolen truck they had chased into Albuquerque’s West Side.
A BCSO spokeswoman said a news conference will be held about it next Tuesday — 11 days after the shooting.
Gonzales said the media take only sound bites from the news conferences and do not show the whole story.
“We’ve stood here repeatedly, numerous times, offering all of the information, and oftentimes we’re only seeing a snapshot of what we’re saying,” he said. “Sometimes that actually shows or gives it a lopsided story. I think that’s a disservice to the public.”
There have been nine shootings involving deputies over the past four months. Five people have been killed, three have been injured and two were not hit. Gonzales has held numerous news conferences and occasionally has played selected belt tape audio or surveillance video.
He repeatedly has defended his use of belt tape audio recorders rather than body-worn cameras. Gonzales cited a recent study conducted by another police department that found there is no indication that cameras change the behavior of the suspects or law enforcement or keeps people safer.
But according to a survey of police departments around the country conducted by the Police Executive
Research Forum, a nonprofit police research and policy organization, police chiefs whose agencies use such equipment reported an increase in transparency and accountability in their departments and fewer use-of-force incidents and complaints from civilians.
Gonzales’ stance has drawn criticism from civil rights groups and lawyers.
“Those sound like the comments of a sheriff who doesn’t want to be held accountable by the community that he serves,” said Peter Simonson, the executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. “Most departments in large cities around the country these days are implementing the use of on-body video recording devices, and for the sheriff of the largest county in the state to so quickly dismiss the possible utility of bodyworn cameras strikes me as a very worrisome comment about his commitment to transparency and his commitment of accountability in department.”