New loop for body cameras: Schools
As police departments across the country adopt body cameras, an Iowa school district is following suit by outfitting administrators with clip-on video cameras.
Burlington Community School District in southeastern Iowa is taking the unusual step of recording parent and student interactions with principals and assistant principals — a move district officials say will protect both sides.
“It’s personal accountability,” Superintendent Pat Coen told The Des Moines Reg
ister. “Did we treat this person with dignity, honor and respect? And if we didn’t, why didn’t we?”
The 4,300-student district along the eastern Iowa border is thought to be among the first in the nation to outfit administrators at each of the district’s eight school buildings with a body camera.
But at least one safety expert calls the move troubling. Ken Trump of the National School Safety and Security Services called it a “substantial overreach” by school leaders, one he wouldn’t want to see replicated in other districts.
“They’re not in the dark alleys of local streets on the midnight shift,” said Trump, president of the Ohio-based consulting firm. “They’re in school with children.”
The national attention on police officer misconduct has helped buoy the trend toward body cameras, in part because they are seen as a way to help ensure professional conduct.
Coen said wearing cameras sets high expectations for conduct, which he saw firsthand while serving in the Iowa Army National Guard in Afghanistan.
“You always knew that if you messed up, the whole world got to see you mess up,” said Coen, a retired colonel.
But videos can be reviewed and used to improve conduct. “It wasn’t so much about catching the other guy, but collecting how we did on the operation and how can we do it better,” he said.
However, Trump said that body cameras could prevent administrators and school resource officers from building trust with students, which is a vital part of keeping students safe.
“You have to ask, really, why are we doing this?” Trump said. “And is it going to create more problems than it solves?”