Before heading out last week to help with a Sheriff’s Office checkpoint on N.C. 107, every Sylva police officer involved clipped a body-mounted camera to their uniform so they could record interactions with suspected drunken drivers.
The officers are wearing the playing-card sized cameras while on routine patrols, too, as they wrap up a two-month experiment using the audio and video recording equipment. The officers’ verdict is favorable, and now body cameras are likely to join guns, handcuffs and radios as standard issue for Sylva police.
Officer Mark Bennett believes people are more civil and cooperative after noticing the body camera on his chest. And Bennett said wearing a body camera helps remind him to behave professionally no matter the circumstances.
“It makes you think,” the 12-year veteran said.
Body cameras can reduce he-said-she-said encounters. One law enforcement agency included in a recent U.S. Department of Justice report added them and experienced an 88-percent reduction in citizen complaints. Sylva police have fewer than 10 complaints a year, Police Chief Davis Woodard said. Body cameras could cut that number even more.
“It makes you step up your game” when interacting with the public, said Woodard, who has tested one himself.
Sylva’s experiment coincides with President Barack Obama’s request for $75 million in funding for 50,000 body cameras. Woodard is hopeful the town can secure some of those federal dollars. The body cameras Sylva is using cost $795 each. The 15-member department (plus two reserve officers) currently has five body cameras and would like seven or eight more. Woodard wants them to automatically begin recording when officers flip their patrol cars’ blue lights on; that would mean another $500 each. An adrenalin-fueled officer could easily forget to manually start the recording equipment, Woodard said.
Woodard and Assistant Police Chief Tammy Hooper stressed the body cameras are in addition to car dashboard cameras. The dashboard cameras provide potentially critical evidence following traffic stops, they said, particularly after officers arrest drunken drivers.
Sylva police are not the first law enforcement agency in Jackson County to use body cameras. Western Carolina University officers have experimented with them for a couple of years.
“Like anything else there is inexpensive and expensive,” WCU Police Chief Ernie Hudson said. “The less expensive, the less reliable. We’ve pretty much settled on one system, but we’ve not yet been able to outfit every officer with them due to the cost.”
The state Highway Patrol is talking to vendors and, depending on costs, could start a pilot project involving some of its 1,500 troopers, the agency’s communications officer, Lt. Jeff Gordon, said.
Before studying whether to outfit deputies, the Sheriff’s Office wants clarity about how footage taken by the cameras would be used. The question is whether the recordings are investigative or personnel records. Law enforcement agencies in North Carolina can publicly release investigative records, but not personnel records. Also in flux is how long an agency will need to keep the footage; data storage can become expensive. The Sylva Police Department is studying other agencies’ policies for answers as administrators develop their own.
About Digital Ally, Inc.
Digital Ally provides a complete line of vehicle video systems integrated into a rear-view mirror, utilizing compact monitor controllers, or laptops/MDCs; compact video systems that may be worn or mounted; a digital video flashlight; and LIDAR handheld speed enforcement systems. For more information, contact Digital Ally at 800-440-4947 (+913.814.7774 international), sales@digitalallyinc.com or visit www.digitalallyinc.com.