Police to wear body cameras

Borough council ready to buy body cams for the department

LANSDALE » Officers in the Lansdale Police Department could soon have a new addition to their uniforms, one meant to help keep the public and the officers safe.

Council continued talks last week on the possible purchase of body-worn cameras for officers and could approve an order to do so next week.

“They are not an end-all solution, they are just a tool which we hope will help,” said Police Chief Mike Trail.

Since the outbreak of protests across the country following the death of George Floyd in May, the local department has helped safeguard peaceful protests in town,

begun changing their hiring policies to widen the field of potential applicants, and looked into revising their use of force policy to limit the use of choke holds.

Another piece of the puzzle came into focus Wednesday night, when Trail and council’s public safety committee chairwoman Meg Currie Teoh gave details on a proposal to outfit the department’s officers with cameras.

“We are proposing that the borough purchase 28 devices, as well as invest in a significant amount of cloud storage,” Teoh said.

Included in the up-front cost of roughly $78,000, Trail and Teoh told council, is a recurring cost of $24,000 to $25,000 that will need to be added to the borough’s budget for the online storage of the body camera video footage.

That up-front cost can be absorbed since the department is currently $80,000 to $90,000 under budget on overtime for the year with the cancellation of most public events, according to Teoh, and the annual data cost could be reduced by grant funding.

“It’s important that our officers have this resource, that we have this resource: It protects the officers, it protects the community, it’s an important thing for LPD to do, and I commend Chief Trail for moving this forward,” Teoh said.

The public safety committee unanimously voted that order ahead for a full council vote Aug. 19, after several council members asked about specifics.

Councilwoman Carrie Hawkins Charlton asked what rules or policies would be put in place to ensure the cameras are filming when needed.

“We see in the news that the body cameras are mysteriously turned off in times of crisis, when that’s the moment that we need them on. It’s happened, over and over and over again, throughout our country,” she said.

Trail said the policy that would accompany the cameras will spell out those rules, based on the type of incident an officer is sent to investigate.

“The ‘always-on’ concept is a misnomer, because there are many instances during the day when the camera could be turned off. With respect to critical incidents, the policy does dictate that in those situations, the cameras are to be on,” he said.

“If there was, for example, a critical incident involving an arrest, or a domestic type of incident, they would be required to have those cameras on, and to capture that,” he said.

Having the cloud storage component will be critical, Trail told council, since the storage space would be well beyond what the borough can handle on its own servers, and should eliminate any technical problems that could cause video to be lost.

“You could go on for hours, ad nauseum, on hypotheticals, but the policy is robust, it is a best practice approach,” vetted by nationwide policing groups and the camera vendor, according to the chief — “I’m confident we can do this, and get it done right.”

How long will that camera footage be kept? Trail said that will depend on several factors, including the frame rate and size of videos, in addition to the type of incident response.

“Obviously arrests, critical incidents, God forbid a use of force incidents they’re going to have much longer retention rates, based upon a multitude of factors, the statutes of limitations on prosecutions, and other record retention requirements,” he said.

Those rules and regs for retaining body camera video have been increasing across the country in favor of keeping more video, for longer periods of time, the chief said; “we would probably err on the side of overretaining.”

Councilman Leon Angelichio asked if the new cameras would require any formal agreement or talks with the police department’s union, and would their disciplinary rules need to change to cover any incidents with the cameras.

“I don’t want to have a situation where we get in an argument with a member of our police force, because we don’t have a program or a defined disciplinary ladder in place,” Angelichio said.

Trail said any policy changes would be discussed beforehand and based on best practices found in consultation with neighboring departments.

“With respect to policy, the union does not get the right to dictate policy. That’s a managerial right, that we set, within the organization,” he said.

“Quite frankly, none of these things that we’re proposing here tonight are anywhere outside, really, mainstream policing in America today. It’s not like we’re in 1960, and we’re bringing in body cameras, and no one’s ever heard of them,” Trail said.

The public safety committee also continued talks on changing the hiring policies and practices, Teoh told council, to remove a requirement that applicants must complete formal police academy training before they are hired.

“As we all know, LPD’s stated goal is to improve diversity in the ranks, and removing that requirement would go a long way toward doing that,” she said.

Hiring requirements would still include that applicants be at least 21 years old, with a high school diploma or GED, and have at least 60 college credits, while the borough could cover the roughly $7,000 cost per new hire for completing the police training, with some reimbursement possible via grants.

“It’s not like we’re adding dozens of new police officers a year, so this feels like a pretty minimal cost that would really achieve a bigger goal here,” she said.

Mayor Garry Herbert said he thought both changes, the body cameras and hiring policies, were signs of the department moving as quickly as possible to keep up with a rapidly changing world.

“This just shows that it’s an evolution of our department, and we have to evolve with the times,” he said.

“Yes, it comes at a cost, but there’s benefits to that spending. I think we have to look at it that way, and absorb it, and let ourselves become better for it,” Herbert said.

“They are not an end-all solution, they are just a tool which we hope will help.” — Police Chief Mike Trail