Encore | Eye on Policing: How Body Cameras Change Law Enforcement

The National Law Enforcement Museum hosted a panel discussion concerning the implementation of body warn cameras by law enforcement. Each panelist began by sharing their involvement with body worn cameras, touching on issues of pilot program implementation, getting community input, and creating and analyzing policies for body camera programs. Panelists also explained how they worked to get communities on board with the idea of body cameras.

Lt. Grenon shared how, in Seattle, they provided room in their policy for officers to be able to flag certain elements of video in the metadata that might not be appropriate for public disclosure. Commander Jones told of a debate that came up in Montgomery County about whether or not it was appropriate for School Resource Officers to use cameras when engaging with students, and that privacy concerns of domestic violence and sexual assault victims was a common concern.

The question of disclosure emerged as one of the primary concerns and challenges of body camera programs. Mr. Stanley explained what the ACLU sees as the ideal: “We don’t want to see extremes on either end of the spectrum…we don’t think that’s the right balance between transparency and disclosure.” According to Mr. Stanley, certain types of videos should be flagged and made publicly available, but routine video need not be held in perpetuity.

Tune into this revisit in its entirety and see how a program from several years is still very much relevant to today’s law enforcement.

Thanks for listening!