Already equipped with a gun and a baton, Chula Vista Police officers could add body-worn cameras to their arsenal.
The police department will ask City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to purchase 114 body-worn cameras to outfit the department’s patrol division beginning in January 2015.
If approved by the City Council, the department will enter a five-year, $500,000 contract with TASER, creator of the cameras.
“We’re optimistic that the City Council will see the need for this as well and support this program,” said Police Capt. Roxana Kennedy.
However, the cost of the cameras isn’t carrying the hefty price tag.
A majority of the $500,000 pays for the storage of video, Kennedy said. Footage will be stored through cloud-based storage on the Internet.
The five-year service and storage cost is about $423,898 with the cameras costing $77,395 over five years.
Kennedy said community partners have supported the possible implementation of the body cameras and are sponsoring the first $25,000.
The money was raised through the Chula Vista Police Foundation and was specifically earmarked for the body cameras.
Councilwoman Mary Salas said the city should consider body cameras for its officers.
“Body cameras on law enforcement officials are becoming more common in different cities, so I don’t see why Chula Vista shouldn’t explore the possibility,” Salas said.
Criminal defense attorney Mary Frances Prevost said approving body cameras will be cost effective for the city.
“I think the money the City Council invests in this, will probably save them many times over in payouts for civil rights cases,” she said. “Chula Vista has had its share of Civil rights lawsuits. And I think that the council is smart in looking at this.”
Prevost said body cameras are beneficial because they protect officers from false complaints and protect the public from those few officers who might engage in misconduct without the cameras.
Prevost said statistics show that false complaints against officers decrease by 80 percent because of the cameras.
The Chula Vista Police Department has tested six cameras since August 2010 and after several technological enhancements the department is ready to outfit each of their patrol officers with a camera.
“They’ve passed the standards that we’ve expected,” said Lt. Vern Sallee, who is in charge of the research and study of the cameras.
Sallee said concerns about the cameras in the testing phase have been addressed.
Those concerns included storage capacity, security measures and the size of the cameras.
Sallee said the department is finalizing a policy that specifies when officers are allowed to turn on the wireless devices.
“The way that we envision it is that on an enforcement-related contact the officer shall activate the camera,” he said.
“Anything where they’re interacting with a suspect or victim or a witness to any law enforcement matter they will be recording.”
The cameras have a 30-second prevent buffer, so when an officer taps the record button the video grabs the 30 seconds before the officer turned on the camera.
The buffer only captures video and not audio.
Sallee said officers also have a level of discretion when it comes to turning on the cameras.
Salle said if cameras are implanted, every officer on the force would be trained in how to use the cameras.
Kennedy said arming officers with cameras makes the department and citizens more accountable for their actions.
“We look at it this way, it’s a win-win situation,” she said. “A win for the community as well as the officers because it actually depicts what takes place.”
“If there is a case of misconduct at any point, now we can see for ourselves and make the determination of what the consequences for that are. Accountability and transparency are extremely valuable for all of us involved.”
