Seven-hundred-and-forty-one people in the United States have been shot and killed by police in 2015 as of Wednesday, according to data from The Washington Post. Twenty-eight of them were black and unarmed.

As the stories of marginalized lives lost to police shootings and broken communities grow in the United States, Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety has chosen to proactively implement body cameras, beginning Thursday, in order to foster more accountability and trust.

Of DPS’ 42 officers, the 36 officers who are armed will be required to wear a body camera on duty at all times. However, the cameras will only turn on when an officer is interacting with someone from the community, said DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado.

Officers will inform every person they interact with that they are wearing a body camera, Maldonado said. The camera must remain on throughout the entire interaction, even if there is a request to turn the camera off, he added.

Maldonado said he believes body cameras should be implemented across police forces nationwide to hold officers accountable.

“It’s almost on both sides — whether it’s law enforcement or the public — that there’s a misconception that police officers’ role is one of a crime fighter, when in reality, their role is one of a peacekeeper,” he said.

DPS began a trial program for the body cameras last year under former DPS Chief Tony Callisto. The trial began in the wake of the death of Mike Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Since then, more cases of police brutality against marginalized communities have made headlines. One of the more recent cases was the fatal shooting of Sam Dubose, a 43-year-old black man, by a white University of Cincinnati officer on July 19 during a routine traffic stop. The officer, Ray Tensing, was indicted on a murder charge for Dubose’s death. Tensing and other officers’ body cameras captured the shooting, as well.

There has never been a DPS-related shooting on or near the SU campus. Though Maldonado said he likes to think that DPS has a history of strong, proactive community policing, the body cameras will ideally further that trust.

“It’s better to foster good relations with your community, because there are going to be times — obviously as you can see now — when some event sparks controversy amongst law enforcement and the public, and I think it’s easier to get through those times when you’ve already enjoyed a good relationship with the public,” Maldonado said.

Body cameras were introduced to police forces about 10 to 12 years ago, said William Taylor, the president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement.

However, the equipment is only now trending nationwide, Taylor said, because of the growing number of stories highlighting issues of racial tension and accountability between the public and police. He also contributed the growing trend to the increased quality of the cameras.

“I think most everybody agrees that it is a useful tool, and in fact the cost of the cameras themselves are coming down quite a bit,” Taylor said. “They used to be about $1,000 a piece and right now you can find a decent camera for about $400.”

Maldonado said buying the $1,000 per unit Vievu body cameras that will be used was worth the investment because of the equipment’s efficiency. Once a DPS officer goes off duty, the officer charges the body camera on a dock, which automatically uploads the videos captured earlier into the camera’s program, Maldonado said. To automatically begin recording, all the officer has to do is push the cover of the camera above the lens.

 

DPS will erase all captured footage after 14 days except in serious incidents, Maldonado said. This video expiration date may be extended to 30 days once the body cameras are implemented for a while, he said.

The body cameras will also be placed on the sternum of the officers’ uniforms, but the location may vary if an officer is taller or shorter than average, or if the officer is wearing a vest, Maldonado said.

At Lehigh University, a peer institution of SU, the campus police have been wearing body cameras for a little more than year, said Lehigh University Police Department Chief Edward Shupp.

LUPD chose to implement a body camera program before Mike Brown’s death, Shupp said. The school initially wanted to use the cameras to utilize videos of officers as an educational tool for the police force, he said.

Shupp added that he has used videos of officers during traffic stops to highlight how they could have done something in the routine stop to better enhance the safety of themselves or the public.

The body cameras have overall reinforced positive interactions between the community and LUPD, he added, because people know they can look back on their interactions with the officers later. In fact, Shupp said, several complaints against the department have been withdrawn after the complainants watched the tape of their interaction with officers.

Maldonado said DPS will also use the body cameras as a teaching tool.

But sometimes what the body cameras reveal only further entrenches the rifts between officers and people of marginalized identities, such as in the case of Dubose’s death near UC.

Cincinnati Student Body President Andrew Naab said the campus community is still healing, adding that it will probably take years to rebuild trust between the community — particularly students of color — and the campus police force.

Naab, a senior political science and economics dual major, said the shooting brought to light larger issues of diversity and inclusion on campus.

He added that the most startling factor of Dubose’s death was that the officer indicted on a charge for murdering him was only 25-years-old. Sometimes, Naab said, it’s easy to assume unnecessarily violent officers are from an older generation.

Although body cameras come at a significant cost, Naab emphasized that the money is well spent if it means they can better protect marginalized communities and officers, especially in cases where trust between the two groups is significantly low.

“It’s incredibly unfortunate that body cameras are necessary,” Naab said. “But I do believe they are necessary, because that transparency, accountability and safety that they provide — that’s absolutely crucial.”

Published on September 30, 2015 at 10:45 pm

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu