The Columbus Police Department is behind its original timeline for its officers to be wearing video cameras on their uniforms, but the department says the wait won’t be much longer.
Capt. Fred Shelton told The Dispatch last week that on-duty officers should be wearing cameras by late January or early February. The department must first finish developing policies and procedures for using the cameras, then train the officers, according to Shelton.
Police Chief Tony Carleton announced in August the department would use a $14,045 federal grant to purchase 50 uniform cameras. Shelton said CPD would assign 43 of those cameras to patrol/traffic officers, while the investigation division would use the other seven. Though Shelton hoped to deploy the cameras by fall, he said CPD didn’t receive the cameras until about a month ago.
“When you get a grant, you don’t necessarily get the funds immediately,” Shelton said. “We had hoped to get the cameras in a lot sooner, and if we had, we would’ve been ahead of the curve.”
CPD officers have used audio recording devices since 2010, according to Shelton, but he said video surveillance on calls will add an extra layer of mutual accountability for both officers and the public — especially in the wake of a now infamous Ferguson, Missouri, incident where a grand jury cleared a police officer of wrongdoing after he shot an unarmed suspect to death while on duty. Shelton hopes the cameras will also help build more trust between the police and the public.
“It holds us accountable, and it holds the public accountable too,” he said. “So it’s a win-win situation for everybody.”
Shelton said CPD would use information gathered from the cameras to investigate crimes, as well as citizen complaints. For instance, if a citizen complains that an officer was rude, used excessive force or otherwise didn’t follow proper police procedure on a call, CPD can refer to the video to better determine the nature of the officer’s interaction with the citizen.
“We’re also trying to be as transparent as possible with what we do,” Shelton said. “These cameras are not to be covert. These are for people to know that we have them, and for people to know they are being recorded.”
Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Director Ken Winter said CPD is one of several city police departments in Mississippi either using or in the process of outfitting officers with body cameras, though he didn’t know the specific number.
The cameras, he said, add one dimension to more transparent police work, especially in the public outrage, violence and property damage that followed the Ferguson shooting. But he warns they are not a “panacea” that will remedy all public suspicion and remove all ambiguity.
“There’s so much that’s panoramic that a body camera won’t show you,” Winter, former Indianola police chief and former director of the State Crime Lab, said. “It’s not going to show you anything out of its field of vision, and it’s not going to show you everything the officer sees. That’s going to be an issue because there’s a segment of the public that, unfortunately, doesn’t trust police or the criminal justice system as a whole.”
Winter referenced another well-known incident in New York, where police officers forced Eric Garner — a man accused of illegally selling cigarettes — to the ground, and the suspect later died. A bystander caught the scene on video, where Garner was heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” as police labored to take him into custody. Protests erupted nationwide after no officers were charged in Garner’s death.
Accusations from protesters in the Garner case have ranged from racial profiling and excessive force to assertions that an officer used an illegal choke-hold to subdue the suspect. Police accused Garner of resisting arrest and claimed the force was necessary and within procedural guidelines.
“That issue has been taken out of context,” Winter said. “If you watch the video, those officers did what officers have done thousands of times. They took (Garner) down. They didn’t choke him.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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