Body Cameras: Accountability or vindication?

Part 1 in a series on the use of video surveillance

IOWA CITY — In September 2014, a cellphone video depicting Iowa City police officers breaking up a house party was posted to the Internet.

Included with the video on the website was a scathing criticism of the department, alleging — among other issues — that officers entered the home without a warrant and used excessive force with the people inside.

Police refuted the claims of illegal entry and excessive force. What's more, police said they had video of their own, taken from a body camera worn by one of the officers responding to the call. The video told a more complete story, police said, showing one of the partygoers struggling with police on the porch of the residence before the scrum spilled inside the home — something not shown in the house-party video.

BODY CAMERA VIDEO: Police respond to loud party call

Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine said before video technology was available to officers — in a squad car or on a body camera — it would take one of his investigators 40 hours or more to investigate a single officer complaint.

'When you've got a video, that takes it down to 10 to 20 minutes,' Hargadine said last month. 'That's a no-brainer.'

In the coming weeks, the Iowa City Police Department will outfit each of its patrol officers and investigators, as well as much of its command staff, with body cameras. Even community-service officers — responsible for duties ranging from funeral escorts to having vehicles towed — will be given cameras,

'People get pretty ugly with them from time to time,' Hargadine said.

The hope, Hargadine said, is that the body cameras will aid in the collection of evidence for criminal cases and provide quick resolutions to citizen complaints.

About the size of a deck of cards and worn on the uniform, the manually trigged cameras will be activated in instances that could lead to a criminal case or a citizen complaint. Some departments — such as the Coralville Police Department — activate their cameras for every citizen interaction.

'We want to be able to dispel as many issues as we can, whether they be evidence or complaints,' he said.

Some citizens, meanwhile, are hoping the cameras lead to more police accountability and transparency in the wake of events in Furgeson, Mo., New York City and Baltimore in which cases of excessive police force were alleged.

Concerns remain on both sides of the issue, predominantly about privacy.

'The reason we support the use of body cameras is that we see it as a real tool for police accountability,' said Jeremy Rosen, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, based in Des Moines. 'We think that's important. We have our specific concerns for privacy.'

The Value Of Video

Body cameras are not new to law enforcement, or even Eastern Iowa. The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety has outfitted its officers with body cameras since 2011, and the Coralville and North Liberty police departments also have body cameras for their officers to use.

Iowa City will be the second department in Johnson County to have a camera assigned to each officer and investigator, which should aid in video management and investigating complaints related to specific officers. UI police have 75 cameras assigned to individual officers to handle special operations such as football games, according to interim Director David Visin.

Iowa City has ordered about 85 cameras, Hargadine said.

Police departments have long seen the importance and value of video technology, Hargadine said. Beginning with in-car dash cameras, police learned that camera footage could provide evidence in a case and help settle citizen complaints.

However, Iowa City still had a video blind spot — foot and patrol officers. Body cameras will solve that issue, Hargadine said.

'We want to put a camera on those who weren't around a dash cam,' he said.

While it might be easy to draw a connection to the obtaining of body cameras and public outcry surrounding the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., or similar events, Hargadine and Johnson County Sheriffy Lonny Pulkrabek — who will be outfitting all his jail and patrol deputies with body cameras later this year — said that's not the case. Both departments were testing and making plans to purchase body cameras before those events occurred.

'Like everybody else, we've been looking,' Pulkrabek said. 'I've had deputies ask for them. Obviously it's a good trend.

'Body cameras are not the end-all, cure-all for all the problems out there, but it has shown with our in-car cameras how much they help us. It changes people's behaviors ...

If it makes our job any easier, I think it's a benefit.'

Still, a body cameras researcher said the events in Ferguson and elsewhere have to at least be part of the body camera discussion, regardless of whether they are the reason departments are obtaining the technology.

'I think Americans will increasingly come to expect that police have cameras,' said Matthew Feeney, a policy analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute think-tank. 'I think there have been a number of incidents that have brought the issue to the public consciousness ...

'What all of these things have in common is they have highlighted that Americans are quite unhappy with the state of policing, the methods they use and how accountable they are. I think body cameras are part of that conversation.'

Chad Simmons, director of Cedar Rapids Diversity Focus, said he recognizes that members of the public are demanding cameras, though it's not necessarily a viewpoint he shares. Simmons said he has concerns about privacy and who owns the video captured by police — the person depicted in the video or the general public. As current law doesn't address body camera footage, it will be up to each jurisdiction and their interpretation of existing public records law to determine if video is released.

He also sees building positive relationships between police and the community as a better approach to addressing issues.

'The body cams are a potential solution,' Simmons said. 'I just don't think it is the solution. I think it's the relationships the police and community have with each other.

'My hope is the tool is used in such a way, in essence, to correct behavior or to weed out officers who are not doing things appropriately.'

Who turns on the cameras?

The cameras are not without some controversy. In addition to the privacy issues, some members of the public have concerns about leaving it to the officer to activate the cameras.

Hargadine said voice-activated camera technology is not feasible yet, but officers will have to justify why cameras were not turned on in a situation that, upon later consideration, should have been. He cited examples in which an officer could put themselves in harm's way by taking the time to activate the camera.

In addition, the national ACLU and police departments are at odds over how long the footage should be stored and whether officers should be allowed to view body camera footage before filing their reports. The ACLU's stance is that videos not related to citizen complaints or an arrest should be deleted quickly and that officers should not view body-camera footage before filing a report in case it influences their recollection of events.

Police, however, have said they need to retain footage during the entire window for a complaint to be filed and are in favor of allowing an officer to view all video evidence before filing a report.

Coralville Police Chief Barry Bedford — whose department has been using body cameras since December — has been pleased with the early returns on the cameras.

'From a criminal case, it's just one more piece of evidence that oftentimes we have to substantiate the basis for a criminal charge,' he said. 'I don't think we've had any officer complaints where they've been involved ...

'If we had, they've vindicated the officer instead of going in the other direction. I think they've been positive.'

How body cameras work

Beginning in the next few weeks, every Iowa City patrol officer, investigator and community service officer, as well as some members of the command staff, will be equipped with body cameras. Officers will be equipped with the BodyVISION camera from New York-based L-3 Communications.

Here's a rundown on the cameras, how they work and their intended use.

How do they work?

The cameras — about the size of a deck of cards and worn on each officers shirt — and can be activated to record video and audio.

How are they turned on?

Officers will manually activate the cameras.

How much do they cost?

Each unit has a price tag of about $400.

When will they be activated?

Policies differ from department to department, but Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine said his officers will be instructed to turn on the cameras when recording anything that could be considered evidence or could lead to an officer complaint.

The exception will be when taking the time to activate the camera could create an officer-safety situation. Officers will be required to justify why the camera was not turned on in situations that would require their activation, Hargadine said.

How much video can the cameras record?

The cameras can record up to hour hours of HD video and have 48 hours of standby power.

Where will the video be kept?

The body camera video will be stored on the same system as the department's in-car dash cameras. The video will upload off the cameras when they are charging and will be saved for a period of time based on whether they are evidence or could potentially relate to an officer complaint.

Video determined to be evidence will be saved to a DVD.

Can the public view the videos?

That will depend on the situation. Videos that relate to a criminal case likely will be sealed as evidence. Hargadine said he will not release video if someone wants to use it to 'smear' another person.

He said he will release video of an incident if the department's credibility in addressing that incident is called into question. For situations dealing with the public not resulting in an arrest or complaint, police departments said they will handle those on a case-by-case basis.