Scottsdale PD works to improve body cams

Audit suggested better monitoring of footage

A city audit released in June shows Scottsdale police must better monitor body camera footage, tighten access and enforce protocols on how videos are deleted.

The department is now implementing fixes on the fairly new but fast growing use of body-worn cameras.

Body cameras have become a topic of national conversation as the public has demanded more transparency from police departments regarding their interactions with the public.

About a quarter of of the nation’s police departments were using body cameras or preparing to implement the technology in 2015. Last year, 95 percent of police departments said they were either using or planned to use body cameras, according to a survey conducted by the Major Cities Chiefs Association and Major County Sheriffs’ Association.

Scottsdale launched its program with 10 cameras in 2012 and has 198 cameras today. All patrol officers, as well as other sworn staff, are required to wear body cameras, according to Sgt. Ben Hoster.

Officers must record all contact with residents while on duty and may stop recording at the end of an active investigation, according to department policy.

At the end of their shift, officers place their Axon body cameras into a charging dock, where all original video from the cameras are uploaded to Evidence.com. The footage can be used as evidence in cases and can be requested by the public.

The public requested footage from 386 incidents in the 2018 fiscal year, according to the audit.

Scottsdale estimates it has spent $770,000 on body camera equipment, training and data storage through the fiscal year that ended June 30.

“It was a good time to take a look at the program because it was relatively new but had time to mature and develop policies and procedures,” City Auditor Sharron Walker said. “I wanted to evaluate if they had controls and oversight practices in place so the officers knew them and were following them.”

Improving oversight

Supervisors are required to review at least four random videos per month from each of their officers to ensure the cameras are being used. However, supervisors need access to reports to do this more effectively, according to the audit.

Walker said most supervisors appeared to log in at least once per month, but the audit found one supervisor had not logged in to review footage since 2016.

Program managers also had not monitored whether supervisors met the monthly oversight requirement, according to the audit.

Clamping down on access

The department also must tighten who has access to Evidence.com, where the videos are stored.

The audit found that former employees still had access to the site, including one former employee with full administrative rights.

Walker said they found no evidence that any former employee used that access after leaving.

The audit suggests following the least access principle. “Someone should be given the least amount of access that is necessary to do their job,” Walker said.

The department has implemented that fix, Hoster said.

Erasing videos

The audit also found that documentation was not always retained when an officer manually deleted a video, and that videos were deleted without proper notification through the chain of command.

Officers are prohibited from attempting to erase, alter or tamper with videos. Employees must submit an email of explanation through the chain of command before a video is deleted, according to department policy.

Deleted videos included situations where officers forgot to turn off their cameras while taking a call or using the bathroom, Walker said.

“Sometimes there’s some accidental recordings and that’s what they’re deleting,” she said. “But that document trail should have been kept.”

Deleted videos leave behind metadata for the auditor to track down and recover.

The audit also called for better tagging of videos with report numbers, event descriptors and the types of crime committed to make videos easier to locate later.

Making improvements

A coalition of 15 police departments in metro Phoenix that use Axon body cameras meets quarterly to discuss issues and share best practices, Hoster said.

“The program is evolving technology for us, I think we saw this audit as an opportunity to use some of the best practices in the Valley and implement them,” Hoster said. “We need to develop policies for us to guide and hone this to make it a successful program.”

City auditors will follow up in a few months to ensure changes are in place, Walker said.