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    Coleman Wants Police Body Cameras, but Says State Must Act

    New Police Reforms

    Mayor Michael Coleman made two things clear Thursday afternoon. The first is that the use of body cameras tops the list of major reforms he wants to see enacted within the Columbus Division of Police. The second is that before Columbus cops start wearing cameras, the state of Ohio must step up and address privacy and cost concerns.

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    Flanked by members of the Columbus City Council, Police Chief Kim Jacobs and Safety Director George Speaks, the Mayor recalled his first years in office, when the Justice Department filed a complaint against CPD for alleged abuses and failures, pushing the city and the police to review and reform their practices. Now, with protests and riots unfolding nationwide over unwarranted police violence, similar reviews are again necessary.

    “We looked hard at ourselves in 2001,” said Coleman. “It’s time to look hard at ourselves again.”

    Coleman’s first recommendation was for the city to move toward the use of police body cameras as a tool to protect both cops and the citizens they encounter. He also warned, however, that body cameras present a far greater challenge to personal privacy than dashboard cameras or neighborhood security cameras because the police officers wearing them will likely be entering private residences.

    State laws regarding public records will have to change before the city can consider the use of body cameras, said Coleman, to prevent “entrepreneurs” from gaining access to videos of private citizens in compromising positions and exploiting them for profit.

    Body cameras themselves are expensive, but the server capacity required to store the footage they will gather – most of which will never need to be accessed – is expected to cost between $4 million and 6 million initially, with a significant annual cost after that. Additional costs will be necessary to train officers in how the cameras should be used, all of which adds up to an estimated price tag $10 million to 12 million. It’s a price Columbus cannot afford without assistance from higher powers.

    “If the state government wants to be helpful, if the federal government wants to be helpful, then they need to help fund it in the city of Columbus and other cities around the country and the state of Ohio,” said Coleman.

    Coleman proposed the formulation of a nine-person committee to address the privacy and cost concerns associated with body cameras. The committee will be appointed by Coleman and will represent the citizens, police officers and the Fraternal Order of Police. Coleman said while he hasn’t put a timeline on the committee’s work, he hopes it will be completed while he is still mayor.

    In addition to the body cameras, Coleman called for an independent, third-party expert to review CPD’s internal affairs process, make sure the process is meeting standards and provide recommendations on where it can improve.

    “The wave of the future”

    Chief Jacobs welcomed Coleman’s proposals and offered her own initiatives to build better relationships between citizens and the police. Jacobs attended several community meetings in each of the city’s police zones over the last few months, hearing various concerns from citizens about police practices. The Chief said these meetings were beneficial and will become an annual practice. Jacobs also said she will mandate training for officers in communication skills, diversity, bias and de-escalation tactics.

    Jacobs later elaborated on the importance of de-escalation tactics, which have already become part of in-service training for police officers.

    “Telling an officer to back down goes against what they’ve been told for years, to solve and prevent crime,” said Jacobs. “It’s important that we talk about de-escalation as it regards to community policing, as it regards to treating people with dignity and respect, but never as it regards to not fighting crime. The public still wants us to fight crime and we’ll continue to do that.”

    The Chief also said most of her officers recognize that police departments all over the country are moving toward the use of body cameras, even though misgivings about the technology remain.

    “They have conversations every single day with citizens that might be very uncomfortable if a recording device is going on,” said Jacobs. “If they’re talking to one of the neighbors on the street and they say, that guy down the street, he’s been doing this and this and this and this, but I want to remain anonymous, well, if it’s on tape it’s not anonymous anymore. And so those are the kinds of things that I know our officers realize could be a chilling effect.”

    Still, said Jacobs, “I think that all of our officers understand that body cameras are probably the wave of the future. Although I see that’s just the tip of the iceberg with technology. Some day we might be flying drones instead of approaching cars.”

    Intended Purposes, Unintended Consequences

    Like the officers Jacobs described, Mayor Coleman also sees body cameras as a technology that has outpaced the society using it. For that reason, his proposed nine-person committee will focus heavily on privacy as well as costs and training procedures for the cameras.

    “Body cameras are different than neighborhood cameras and dash cams. And the potential for privacy issues becomes more apparent and prevalent and more serious than the other two,” Coleman warned reporters after his speech. “I want to do this in a thoughtful way, that results in the intended purpose, not…the unintended consequences.”

    The Mayor maintained that he has been looking into body cameras for a long time and sees them primarily as a benefit to citizens and police officers. Still, he remains haunted by the possibilities for extreme violations of the average citizen’s privacy.

    “I can envision blog sites and all kinds of things that find people in compromising situations and the moment those start happening, there’ll be a big backlash,” said Coleman. “I think there’s a value to these cameras because just as the dash cameras and the neighborhood cameras protect people and help protect the police, it’s overall good and balanced. But these privacy issues concern me.”

    One of the primary unknowns when it comes to body cameras is just how long footage would have to be stored at the expense of the city. Safety Director Speaks said there is no records retention best practice for body camera footage at the moment. The length of time CPD would be required to retain that footage is one of the things the proposed committee would be charged with recommending.

    Almost every aspect of police body cameras, from privacy to training to cost, is new territory.

    “People are jumping into it around the country and they’ve got to think through what it means and how you do this. So I want to do it in a thoughtful way that has an impact, not a negative consequence,” said Coleman, who also reminded reporters that little can be done until the state government takes action.

    “We have smart people in the legislature, they like to regulate our cameras as you well know, at intersections where we really didn’t need them to engage,” said Coleman. “Now we need them to engage.”

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    Jesse Betheahttps://columbusunderground.com
    Jesse Bethea is a freelance features writer at Columbus Underground covering neighborhood issues, economics, science, technology and other topics. He is a graduate from Ohio University, a native of Fairfax, Virginia and a fan of movies, politics and baseball. Jesse is the winner of The Great Novel Contest and the author of Fellow Travellers, available now at all major retailers.
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