Body cameras give officers more mobility to record events during traffic stops
By Steve Garbacz
Daily Journal
FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — When the sheriff’s deputy stops a person for drunken driving or is taking a person to the jail, he’ll flip on a small portable camera to record everything that happens.
The camera is about three inches long, and Deputy Jason Wools often clips it to his uniform to record traffic stops while working the night shift. The videos he records can help him review sobriety tests, prove that a person was yelling or fighting with him or other officers or capture confessions made by people on their way to the jail.
Since his sport-utility vehicle doesn’t have an in-car camera, Wools relies on his portable camera to capture what happens when he’s out doing his job.
All of the Johnson County sheriff’s deputies can use a body camera, a small camera that can be worn and turned on to record any interaction that officer has with another person. While the county has been using in-car cameras for years to record traffic stops, the portable cameras give deputies more mobility to record events that aren’t occurring in front of their vehicle.
The sheriff’s office has been using the cameras for about two years. Greenwood and Franklin police also are exploring whether it’s worth the cost to start equipping their officers with cameras, too.
Deputies aren’t required to use the cameras, and some do more than others. But the cameras allow deputies to record incidents such as traffic stops, sobriety tests or domestic abuse investigations. That can help prosecutors prove their case in criminal trials or allow the sheriff to check the tape if someone files a complaint about a deputy, Sheriff Doug Cox told the Daily Journal (http://bit.ly/1fgQzmH ).
“For an administrator, I like that we’re able to see and hear. It quickly gives us an idea of who is telling the truth and who is not. It can keep them out of trouble,” Cox said.
The cameras can be clipped to a deputy’s uniform, Cox said. The mobile cameras cost a few hundred dollars and can go anywhere an officer goes, compared to a dashboard camera that runs about $5,000 and is permanently mounted in a car. That’s why Cox has been able to equip all 57 deputies with body cams, compared to only about 20 cars with dashboard cameras, he said.
The sheriff’s office doesn’t have a policy requiring deputies to use the camera for every interaction with a suspect, but having video can help an officer prove that a person was stumbling during a sobriety test during a traffic stop or show how a person was resisting a deputy and why he decided to use a Taser on them.
Wools is one of the deputies who uses his camera often, because he wants to be able to have that additional record to show what happened during a particular call and how he handled it, he said.
“I utilize it if I’m going to a call that seems particularly contentious or is out of the ordinary. I will use it on an OWI investigation to provide some video evidence of what I see when I’m performing the standardized field sobriety test. That not only helps me with recalling information on the details but also with the prosecution,” he said.
Wools has video from a 2012 traffic stop, where deputies arrested a woman for driving with a suspended license. While in the back of the police car, she is constantly yelling and swearing at officers and shouting about how she thinks they are illegally searching her car, which was going to be towed to the impound lot, Wools said. During the search, the deputies find marijuana in the car and the video captures her reaction.
In this case, Wools started recording the stop because of her behavior and because she tried to open the car door twice while handcuffed in the back seat, he said. Since the woman was so upset, having the video record also would protect Wools and the other officer if she tried to file complaints about the stop about how the officers treated her or what they were doing during the search, he said.
Taking videos for those reasons protects both the officer and the suspect, because the sheriff is then able to make sure the officer is doing his or her job correctly and professionally. If a person complains that a deputy was rude to them or used unnecessary force, the sheriff can review the tape.
“We want to know that if an officer doesn’t need to be an officer any more or if an officer needs an attitude adjustment,” Cox said.
Other departments also are considering mobile cameras. Franklin has tested a type of camera in the past, and Greenwood is currently working with Taser International to buy four cameras for testing.
Franklin tested a few small cameras last year that cost about $150 each but stopped using them because the quality wasn’t good enough to buy more for each officer, Lt. Kerry Atwood said. He’s still looking, however, and considering some more expensive models that could replace in-car cameras in the future. Those could include a small camera that officers mount in their car, but that is detachable so they can take it with them, Atwood said.
“I know that there are different companies that offer different cameras. They also actually even have a camera that attaches to a pair of safety glasses so wherever you look that’s where the camera records. We haven’t really looked at purchasing any of those, although I would be very much interested,” Atwood said.
Greenwood is working on a contract with Taser to buy four cameras as well as off-site, digital storage for any video that is recorded, Chief John Laut said. That deal is still being worked on, but some Greenwood officers could be testing body cameras by next year, he said.
Having the cameras could help with prosecuting cases and answering complaints, but Laut also said having the cameras could reduce problems when officers make a stop or arrive at a home for an investigation, he said.
“It protects the officers and the citizens. People behave much different when they know they’re on camera,” he said.
The video from the body cameras can be clear with a little practice, said Wools, who works the night shift. During a traffic stop, he’s learned how to lean back or forward to get the right shot and how to hold his flashlight to illuminate a person and capture the best video, he said. The audio the cameras captures is good enough to hear what is being said. For example, in the 2012 traffic stop, with the woman yelling and the K-9 unit barking, you can still make out just about every word.
After taking a video, Wools loads it into the police records system and it’s attached to the call data and report. That video becomes permanently attached to the report, so Wools is able to delete it off the camera’s memory. Then the sheriff, prosecutor or defense attorneys can have access to it at any time, even years later, Wools said.
Police aren’t required to tell you that they’re filming. The camera has a small green light on when it’s recording, but a person standing in front of Wools wouldn’t be able to tell that the unit is on. He will tell a person that he’s turning on the camera in cases such as taking someone to the jail or giving a teenager a ride home, just to have a record of anything said in the car.
