Republican lawmakers vacate full Tennessee State University board over Democratic objections
NEWS

Metro police want policy before adding body cams

Holly Meyer
hmeyer@tennessean.com

Body cameras will likely become a part of policing in Nashville, but not before informed policies are drawn up.

The Nashville Metro Police Department is keeping a close eye on how law enforcement agencies in major cities are using the devices and hopes model policies can be formed through those departments' trial and error, said Don Aaron, Metro police spokesman.

"We were not going to be the first and I don't think we're going to be the last, but we are watching the pilot programs implemented by other police departments and we are particularly interested in policy formation," Aaron said. "I don't think that we need to create an entire process from scratch."

Aaron says implementing the devices is more complex than just pinning a camera to a sworn officer and hitting record. Privacy concerns and specifics on when the cameras should be rolling need to be addressed, he said. Video storage and retention are also being studied.

"The body camera issue has been on our radar for months now and we are very closely watching this evolution, which frankly is still in its infancy," Aaron said.

Body cameras were thrust into the national spotlight in the aftermath of the August police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Similar racially charged incidents across the U.S. keep the cameras in the foreground amid questions about whether the technology would help keep police accountable.

Problems between officers and community members are not new, but the ubiquity of citizen cameras have made them more obvious, said Vanderbilt Law Professor Chris Slobogin. He sees body cameras as just one of many ways to improve police work.

"Everybody is jumping on this as the panacea or at least one of the solutions to the problems between the police and citizens that have come to light recently," Slobogin said. "Body cams are just a way of making sure there is a visual depiction of what happened and it can protect the police just as much as it can protect the people they confront."

Tennessee officials and law enforcement agencies are paying attention. The state legislature considered a bill this year that would require officers to wear wide-angle body cameras, but it was deferred to a summer study committee.

Earlier this month, the Commercial Appeal reported that the Memphis Police Department may outfit officers with body cameras as early as Sept. 1. Among Midstate agencies, Gallatin police began wearing body cameras last week, while Franklin and Mt. Juliet police are weighing their options.

"The body camera process is probably much easier for a smaller agency than a major city police department like ours with more than 1,400 officers," Aaron said.

The Mt. Juliet Police Department, which tested a body camera for about six months in 2014, intends to apply for a recently announced federal grant to buy cameras, said Mt. Juliet police Lt. Tyler Chandler. He expects the cameras will cost the department $34,000.

Policy concerns, like recording in private homes and public access to footage, arose when the officers tested the body camera, Chandler said. Those concerns, plus the cost of adding the cameras, caused the department to hold off on purchasing any, he said.

"The body camera is a great tool that allows more transparency. It also protects the officer better," Chandler said. "One thing we wanted to be sure we watched for is that some of these body cameras capture video that the normal human eye cannot capture. You have to worry about that."

Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner agreed the technology brings up an array of policy issues, but the city's proposed fiscal year budget includes $450,000 for about 110 body cameras, data storage and a staff member to manage data.

City officials said the initiative is about outfitting officers with the best available technology and not a response to the recent nationwide outcry about police conduct.

"This is not a knee-jerk reaction to anything," Faulkner said. "We've been looking at this for months."

Jill Cowan contributed to this report. Reach Holly Meyer at 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.