OKC police take ‘huge step’
CHIEF SAYS BODY CAMERA TESTING WILL HELP BOOST PUBLIC’S TRUST OF OFFICERS
Oklahoma City police began testing body cameras this week, a move that is expected to reinforce public trust in law enforcement and further transparency.
In an interview with The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com, Police Chief Bill Citty characterized the decision as a “huge step” forward for the department.
“The public feels like they need to have that, that there needs to be more accountability from law enforcement,” Citty said.
“I think it’s a good thing. I think most officers think it’s a good thing because most of your officers are out there doing what they think is right,” he said.
“In most cases those videos are going to help them prove that they were.”
Body cameras are small cameras worn on the shirt, shoulder or glasses that record and store digital video. Oklahoma City is conducting a 30-day “wear test” of three systems.
Once a preferred system is chosen, a 100-camera pilot project will begin, lasting a year.
If that goes as expected, the city will begin acquiring additional cameras to equip officers. As new officers are hired, totals could reach 700.
“The majority of our police officers are in the field, and that’s where the cameras are meant to be, for those first responders,” Citty said.
Cameras will play an increasingly prominent role in maintaining healthy police-community relations but
are not the end-all, be-all, the chief said.
“You have to work with community leaders; you have to work on your policies and procedures to make sure that you’re being fair in how you’re policing the community,” Citty said.
“Our department historically has always been extremely open-minded about what we talk about, how we do our job, what our policies and procedures are,” he said.
“We’ve also been willing to look at those and make changes if necessary.”
Positive view
Oklahoma City residents have a positive view of police, with 71 percent of those who responded to a question on the quality of policing in the 2015 community survey saying they were satisfied.
Oklahoma City is taking a measured approach to putting cameras in the field, taking months to select models for the wear test and a year for the limited pilot project.
Body cameras became a topic of discussion nationally after the killing last year of a young black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.
Citty said body cameras had been under consideration by police leaders, but events in communities — including Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb — accelerated the pace in Oklahoma City.
The policy adopted by the council balances citizens’ privacy interests and law enforcement needs, and affirms a commitment to public disclosure of video.
Changes in state law assure images of juveniles and sexual assault victims, and video that would convey protected medical information about individuals, must be withheld or blocked out, Citty said.
Police also can delay disclosure of video that could affect witnesses’ accounts of an incident, or the account of a defendant, in ongoing investigations, he said.
The Oklahoman and NewsOK.com requested under Oklahoma’s open records provisions a sample of video collected in the first days of the wear test but had not received a reply by Friday afternoon.
Making a case
Citty said investigators will benefit from having recorded evidence from suspects and witnesses that could be used to win a conviction or exonerate the innocent.
The public benefits by seeing how police exercise their authority to use force, including deadly force.
For the guilty, Citty said, if the camera “is on and they make statements ... it can be used against them.”
Citty also pointed out that the camera provides a detailed account of an encounter. An officer making split-second decisions in a stressful situation can only see so much, he said.
“It actually picks up more than the officer sees, which can be a huge benefit when you’re looking at something and evaluating something,” Citty said.
“You have to educate the public and really educate our staff because the officer will make decisions without being able to take everything that camera sees into consideration.”