By Police1 Staff
CHICAGO — Newly released records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show the Chicago Police Department’s issues with dash cam audio.
Microphones were missing from cruisers 86 of the 1,700 times they were sent in for maintenance on dash cams over an 11-month period. Another 29 times, microphones were not synced to cameras.
The release comes amidst heightened scrutiny the department has been facing since the release of the fatal shooting video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with murder in the death of McDonald, who was shot 16 times while holding a knife.
Only two of five cruisers on the scene of the Oct. 20, 2015 shooting captured video. None of the video had audio. The lack of audio has been a recurring problem. Of 22 officer-involved shootings reviewed last year, no video footage of the incidents included audio.
Maintenance logs obtained by the publication show many instances of technical malfunctions, but also dozens of instances when officers failed to use the equipment properly or disabled it on purpose.
Maintenance checked on the two cruisers with video footage involved in the McDonald shooting weeks after the incident. Both logs say the mics were either not synced or “intentionally defeated.” However, records do not show whether the same officers were using those same vehicles when they went in for maintenance.
On Dec. 4, following the release of the McDonald video, Interim Police Supt. John Escalante told officers to make sure their video system was up to standard before every shift or face discipline. The department has seen a 75 percent increase in user uploads of video at the end of shifts, a spokesperson told the news site.
The department plans to equip officers with 1,400 body cameras next year to supplement dash cams.