BODY CAMERAS FOR COPS?
Apparently, enough is enough. Use of excessive force by police officers, that is– real or imagined. More and more police departments across the nation are equipping officers with body cameras that can record both audio and video. The increasing use of this new technology has two goals: (1) Help try to catch cops who might use excessive force during arrests and other interactions with citizens; and (2) To try to protect cops from false allegations by citizens.
Just last week, the New York City Police Department unveiled new body cameras that officers will wear as part of a pilot program to test the technology. One of the cameras being tested is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and weighs 3 ounces. Another camera being tested looks like a small microphone and can be worn on a collar, a baseball cap or helmet or even on the frame of a pair of glasses. New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said that he expects the cameras will help to reveal the truth in “he-said-she-said” situations.
Police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, have also started to wear body cameras. Ferguson is the St. Louis suburb where a police officer shot an unarmed 18-year-old man to death last month. In Rialto, California, during the first year that police officers wore body cameras, use of force by police officers reportedly declined by 60 percent. And during that same period, citizen complaints against police officers fell by 80 percent!
One of the companies that manufactures body cameras for police officers was founded by former Seattle cop Steve Ward. “Everyone behaves differently when they’re on video,” he says. (Body cameras have a light on the front showing when they are recording.) “I realized that dash cams capture only about 5 percent of what a cop does, and I wanted to catch 100 percent of what a cop does. Civilians shoot and upload police encounters to the internet everyday using their cell phones. It’s easier than ever to keep the police accountable. But police are looking to keep civilians accountable, too, by wearing cameras of their own,” Ward said.
Here in Key West, the police department has been researching the possible use of body cameras for about two years and, in fact, two potential vendors were in town this week to present their products to police management. But imagine how helpful it might have been had the Key West police officers who participated in the violent arrest and death of Charles Eimers here last November been wearing body cameras– especially Officer Gary Lee Lovette. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) report concerning Eimers’death reveals that Lovette drew his taser while sitting on Eimers’ back. Although he re-holstered the weapon without using it, the taser’s audio recorder had been activated and continued to record for the next 90 minutes without Lovette realizing it. Here are few of Lovette’s recorded comments as quoted in the FDLE report: “I dropped like a f***ing bomb on his head.” When asked who “killed” Eimers, Lovette responded, “Gabe”– possibly referring to Officer Gabriel Garrido, one of the other officers who piled onto Eimers. When asked “How bad did y’all beat him up?” Lovette responded, “Mainly just me.” In responding to another unknown remark, Lovette said. “We just killed someone.” According to the FDLE report, Lovette described the event as an “in custody murder.” Later, during questioning by FDLE agents about his damning admissions, Lovette said he had only been joking in an effort to come across as a “bad ass” in front of fellow officers.
Advice to readers: If you ever find yourself being interviewed by law enforcement after bragging to others that you killed someone who recently died, try telling them that you were only joking to make your friends think that you are macho. And let me know how that works out for you.
If you read the FDLE report, you might notice, as I did, that the FDLE apparently did not try to identify the officers that Lovette was “confessing” to– and why those other officers did not report his apparent confession of murder to their superiors. Oh, never mind. I almost forgot: The Blue Wall of Silence thing.
In any event, what if Lovette and the other officers had been wearing body cameras when they piled onto Eimers? Maybe Lovette would have been in jail today. Or maybe not. But at least his fellow officers (including his superiors) would know that he is at least a lying braggart.
It seems obvious that the time for body cameras on cops is an idea thats time has come. But we should all have concerns that cops may be able to manipulate what is recorded and what is not recorded– just like they do with the dashboard camera systems. Over the years, we here at the Blue Paper have documented a number of instances in which officers have manipulated those systems. In one instance, after an officer had pulled a local artist out of his car during a traffic stop and beat him bloody, police management asked to see the dash cam video. Would you be amazed to learn that there was no video?! The cop’s dash cam had been adjusted to show only the back seat of his patrol car! In another instance, that same cop was recorded instructing a junior officer how to manipulate the dash cam. Was the cop ever disciplined? Well, yes, if you count having to attend additional training on how to use his dash cam. For the record, however, the artist did get $50,000 from the City to settle his lawsuit. [Editor’s Note: Arnaud and Naja Girard are currently gathering all of the FDLE evidence associated with the Eimers investigation and will soon be reporting on the numerous dashcam/taser recordings associated with that case that are either missing, mysteriously truncated, or unintelligible at critical moments.]
Manufacturers of the body cams say that the systems are tamper-proof. Once a video is recorded, software supposedly prevents officers from altering, deleting, editing or uploading any part of it. But as we understand it, the cop still decides when to turn the camera on and when to turn it off. But in any event, using body cameras here is worth a try..
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Dennis Reeves Cooper, Ph.D
Dennis Reeves Cooper founded Key West The Newspaper in 1994 and was editor and publisher for 18 years until he retired in 2012.
One additional note to the many good points made by the venerable author of this article: Alyson Crean was recently quoted in the Citizen as saying we have so few police in Key West that the expense of the $30,000 software and $4000 annual maintenance, as paid by Monroe County police, may not justify the use of the body cameras. The expense to us of the Eimers case will end up being ten times that, easily. GET THE CAMERAS! And fine and otherwise discipline every policeman whose equipment has been manipulated. I have been here 20 yrs, and though never breaking a law, have had 95% of all interactions with the police be totally negative. I have been screamed at, threatened, let down, ignored, and subjected to illegal actions on their part – bullied in other words, in two many encounters to recount. How can I be expected, under such circumstances, to respect them?
The eye is the window of the soul, the mouth the door. The intellect, the will, are seen in the eye; the emotions, sensibilities, and affections, in the mouth. The animals look for man’s intentions right into his eyes. Even a rat, when you hunt him and bring him to bay, looks you in the eye. Hiram Powers, American sculptor (1805 – 1873)