Put cameras on cops
Feds’ ban in joint operations makes it much easier to obfuscate the truth in deadly raids.
Few incidents illustrate why it is vital that police wear body cameras more than the botched drug raid that left two residents of a Harding Street home dead and four Houston officers wounded. Investigators are still trying to determine what went wrong, but there is no video to help them because officers weren’t wearing cameras.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo says that although patrol officers had cameras at the time, the department hadn’t yet implemented a plan to equip SWAT officers and those serving warrants. HPD has since expedited that plan.
But even if the whole force is issued cameras, there are some circumstances where officers wouldn’t be allowed to wear them: joint operations with the feds.
Nationwide, local police are banned from wearing body cameras during any operation conducted by joint task forces involving the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or FBI. The Justice Department says body cameras could reveal “sensitive or tactical methods used in arresting violent fugitives or conducting covert investigations.”
It seems unlikely that body cameras would reveal any “tactical method” you wouldn’t see watching “SWAT” on TV. But even if they did, the federal agencies are missing the point. They aren’t the KGB or any other secret police force. This is America, where police operations for the most part are public record. That’s so taxpayers are assured that justice is served on their behalf, and so police are protected from scurrilous charges.
That’s a point Acevedo stresses as head of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which has asked federal law enforcement agencies to lift their bans against body cameras. The association represents 69 of the nation’s largest police and sheriffs’ departments, including the Atlanta Police Department, which has decided it won’t participate in any more joint task forces until the ban is removed.
Acevedo said other cities, including Houston, may join Atlanta in pulling officers from joint task forces, but he hopes that can be avoided.
“We have spoken to the FBI agent in charge here and through the Major Cities Chiefs Association have been in touch with the attorney general and the director of the FBI,” he told the editorial board. “Federal agents at the operations level understand why body cameras are important. We need to get their agencies’ leaders to understand.”
The chief said Houston officers might have been wearing body cameras during the Harding Street raid if a policy change under consideration had been implemented.
“We had focused on equipping our patrol officers with cameras but were moving toward equipping SWAT officers and anyone serving warrants with cameras as well,” he said.
Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, were killed during the Jan. 28 shootout that began when narcotics officers burst into their home looking for heroin dealers. Two officers involved in the raid, Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant, have since retired. The FBI is conducting a civil rights investigation. Harris County prosecutors have been probing how warrants for the raid were obtained.
Acevedo said he was at the Harding Street house almost immediately after the shooting occurred and got firsthand accounts from officers, but wishes video were available. He said Houston SWAT officers should have body cameras in four to six weeks, when specific mounting devices for their uniforms are available.
The chief pointed out that the Justice Department still provides grants to help local police departments buy body cameras, which makes the federal law enforcement ban of the devices ironic as well as unwise.
“When a life is taken, especially in today’s environment, whether it was in the best or worst of conditions, it’s best to have the record that a body camera can provide,” Acevedo said.
He’s right. Police have shot and killed 437 people nationally this year, which is below last year’s pace, when 992 fatalities occurred. Four people have been killed by Houston police this year, compared with seven fatalities total in 2018. While the circumstances surrounding each death vary, there should be one constant any time an officer uses deadly force: a clear record of the incident, including video.
Law enforcement must make sure the truth is revealed — for the victims, for the officers and for the public. You would think the Justice Department would know that.