Public Safety Comm: Body camera issues for public hearing

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Don Zimmerman
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Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:05 am

Public Safety Comm: Body camera issues for public hearing

Post by Don Zimmerman »

Possible issues to be considered relative to “body cameras” on Austin Police Officers

Dear Council Members:

On Monday, September 28, 2015, the Public Safety Committee will be discussing Police Body Cameras; since the Council funded this issue in the FY 2015-16 City Budget.

Below are some policy questions I have regarding Body Cameras and I am looking for additional questions and in-put from the rest of the Council. At the meeting, we will be having invited, expert testimony. Thus far, Nelson Linder of the Austin NAACP and Ken Casaday of the Austin Police Association have RSVP’d.

We expect to have more of these meetings.

Please let me know if you have any other policy questions that we should discuss.

Activation of Camera
1. What would trigger the activation of the “body camera”—or would it be “rolling” at all times without anything in particular to trigger its activation?
2. If a “trigger” would be required, would that “trigger” be the same as what activates the vehicular “dash cam”?
3. Would a police officer have the ability to turn off the “body camera”?
4. Are there any special considerations for informants?
5. Has the “on-light” for camera operation been ommitted?

Making Video Public
6. Who would have access to the video footage—such as in a public request for information?
7. How quickly would such video footage be made available to a member of the public making a request to view it?
8. Under specific circumstances, do the faces of people—be it suspects or be it bystanders—need to be “blurred out” before the footage is released per a public information request?
9. Are there any special requirements for minors who appear on the footage?
10. How long would “body camera” video be stored?
11. If “body camera” video reveals nothing significant, how would it be determined as to whether that footage should be purged in order to make room for new footage?
12. Will the Austin “police monitor” have priority access to “body camera” footage over the general public?

Pilot Project/Roll-out
13. For the pilot program that the Austin Police Department is planning to conduct with police “body cameras” how are the participants of that pilot program going to be chosen?
14. Are there any special requirements for “SWAT” teams relative to “body cameras”?
15. Once the pilot program has concluded, how will the roll-out be structured in terms of its time-length and in terms of its scope—would ALL Austin police officers be required to wear a “body camera”?

Technology
16. How much recording time would the “body camera” have—perhaps 10 hours’ worth between uses?
17. Will the “body camera” video be stored a multiple locations such that if something happened at one place of storage, there would be duplicate storage to ensure that images are preserved?
18. What is the means by which the “body camera” would differentiate between its completion of use by one police officer and its commencement of use by a different police officer?
18a. Will cameras have non-visible infrared lighting added for better night time operation?
18b. What minimum camera image resolution is considered acceptable?
18c. What minimum audio recording specification is acceptable, e.g. 8 or 16 bit samples, 32Khz freq, etc.
18d. Does the body camera dump its recording data to an in-car device live, periodically, or only at end of shift back at HQ?

Body Camera Reliability Concerns
19. Is there any testing of a “body camera” to verify that a given “body camera” is in fact in proper working order at the beginning of a police shift?
20. If there is a malfunction of a “body camera” how would that be addressed?
21. If the “body camera” fails to capture the image of a police officer shooting and/or killing someone, what would be the policy for that?

Future Considerations
22. If it turns out that these “body cameras” are an excellent idea, should their use later be expanded to Firefighters, EMS workers, and City of Austin Security / Parking personnel?
Don Zimmerman
Council Member District 6 (northwest Austin)