Phoenix is trying to catch up in the use of police body cameras.

Police confrontation in May spurs city to supply equipment

PHOENIX — A Phoenix police officer yelled obscenities and forced an unarmed black man suspected of shoplifting up against a patrol car. Another aimed his gun at the man’s pregnant fiancee, ordering her out of the car with the couple’s two children.

Video of the confrontation stirred outcry last month, and it came from bystanders’ cellphones rather than from officer-worn body cameras. The police weren’t wearing them. Although body-worn cameras are becoming a police standard nationwide, Phoenix was among the last big departments to adopt their widespread use. Leaders of Phoenix, the fifth-largest U.S. city, with about 1.6 million people, quickly moved to fix that after the video emerged.

“Every single precinct will have body-worn cameras by August,” Mayor Kate Gallego said after the May confrontation she called “completely inappropriate and clearly unprofessional.”

The couple said their 4-year-old daughter took a doll from a store without their knowledge, and they rejected police suggestions they stole, too. No charges were filed. The couple filed a $10 million legal claim against the city, alleging civil rights violations.

The department has had several hundred cameras for years, but it wasn’t until February that city leaders approved $5 million to buy and maintain 2,000 devices for a force approaching 3,000 officers. About 950 cameras were being distributed this week.

The purchase followed a city-commissioned National Police Foundation study that said Phoenix police had more officer-involved shootings than any other U.S. department last year.

A separate database that tracks fatal shootings by police showed Phoenix officers killed more people than any other agency in 2018.

The use of body cameras has burgeoned over the past decade after several high-profile killings of African-Americans by mostly white officers in places such as Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore.

Cameras are supposed to promote accountability and transparency and reduce officers’ use of force. A survey by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum said U.S. law enforcement agencies overwhelmingly support using them. A third now use cameras, and nearly 47 percent plan to adopt them.

“When body-worn cameras first came out, there was some trepidation among officers that use of cameras would have unintended consequences,” said Chuck Wexler, the group’s executive director. “The reality is working cops now feel it is an essential part of defending what they do.”

The New York Police Department, the largest in the U.S., completed its rollout of some 20,000 body cameras this year.

Kate Gallego