On Camera

As nation eyes lapel cams, local departments look to pin them on more officers

Santa Fe Police Chief Eric Garcia is looking into whether expanding the use of lapel cameras would be effective and affordable in the City Different.

The on-body, video-recording devices have attracted national attention after a Ferguson, Mo., police officer shot and killed an unarmed teenager there during an altercation that witnesses described in vastly different terms. On Dec. 2, President Barack Obama said he would make federal funds available to increase use of the cameras in cities across the country.

"How easy could they turn on? How effective are they? How good is the quality of picture?" says SFPD spokeswoman Celina Westervelt. "All of those things have to be thoroughly vetted."

While Westervelt says that Garcia has been researching two companies that sell lapel cameras, she notes that “money is tight everywhere,” especially given the department’s new charge of policing additional territory annexed by the city in recent years. SFPD accounts for roughly 29 percent of the city’s $340 million general fund operating budget expenditures—the most out of any department—during the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the county sheriff's office already requires deputies to use them.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office gives each deputy a $194 Muvi HD lapel camera and is considering using them for detectives soon, says Maj. Ken Johnson. He calls the recording devices a "good tool" that, despite inevitable malfunctions that come with small electronics, "have done well for us."

"That's been a practice so far for about three years now," he says of the department's officers wearing lapel cameras. "So we've been pretty much ahead of the game."

The department's standard operating procedure requires deputies to turn on lapel cameras "during each citizen encounter related to a call for service, enforcement action, traffic stop," and "police service," in addition to "building searches, services for suspects, and building checks at alarms." Deputies must put "all pertinent recordings" onto a disc and tag them into evidence.

Within the city's jurisdiction, six traffic officers on motorcycles and five bicycle officers wear lapel cameras, Westervelt says. SFPD cars are outfitted with dashboard video cameras that activate when an officer initiates warning lights and sirens, she says, while all officers have audio recorders.

The recordings help with accuracy of reports, she says, noting they also allow commanders to review whether officers are following protocol.

Matt Martinez, a sergeant in SFPD's street gangs unit, says that he also wears a Muvi lapel camera because he feels like it keeps him safer and it prevents citizens from filing frivolous complaints against him. Two of the detectives in the unit—which conducts narcotics investigations and warrant service on fugitives—use lapel cameras, he says.

But he cautions that one drawback of the lapel cameras is that an officer might not have time to activate them during sudden, dangerous encounters. "If it's a violent situation, I'm not going to put my head down to make sure I'm pressing the right button," he says. "It would not be reasonable to expect our officers to do that."

In other departments across the nation that have used lapel cameras, he notes, complaints against officers have decreased. That's not only because the officer is aware interactions are being recorded, he says, but because citizens know the camera is rolling on them too.

Nationally, some police departments have faced union opposition when requiring that officers wear lapel cameras. Martinez, also president of the Santa Fe Police Officers Association, says the local union "will support any and all ways that will assist Santa Fe Police Department officers in conducting their jobs in an efficient and safe manner."

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