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Police Body Cameras Are Useful, But Flaws Remain

Oftentimes an officer doesn't know a camera is malfunctioning until he or she attempts to download video clips at the end of the shift, and when body cameras are first implemented, it's common for officers to forget to turn them on.

(TNS) -- The Pullman Police Department, Washington State University Police and the Latah County Sheriff's Office all have policies in place requiring officers to activate their body cameras whenever they are physically interacting with the public.

Doing so serves to protect both officers and the public.

"Some people act better, and some of my officers act better when the camera is present," Pullman Police Cmdr. Chris Tennant said. "Overall, the nice thing about cameras is if there is a question about an incident, prior to cameras we didn't have that, it was someone's word against someone else's word. There is a lot of transparency that is brought to the system by cameras."

Cameras weren't recording on Nov. 1 when two deputies from the Adams County Sheriff's Office allegedly shot and killed an armed rancher in southern Idaho, and now the man's family has filed a tort claim alleging he was gunned down without provocation.

While the technology could have helped clear up what exactly happened in Adams County, Tennant said the relatively new technology is not always as reliable as one may think.

"You're dealing with a mechanical device and sometimes cameras don't work," he said. "We have roughly 30 cameras deployed - at least once a month I send a camera in for repair."

Tennant said most of the time an officer doesn't know a camera is malfunctioning until he or she attempts to download video clips at the end of the shift.

He said it was also common for officers to forget to turn cameras on when the department first started using the devices.

"Even now there are times officers still don't turn cameras on," Tennant said. "It's not intentional - usually, when there is a lot of stress included, they are worried about the incident, not turning the camera on. It's human nature."

Latah County Sheriff's Office Lt. Brannon Jordan said his department has had cameras for 10 years, and he acknowledged deputies sometimes forget to activate the cameras. He also said the batteries for the devices only stay charged for a few hours, and can only hold so much data.

Tennant and Jordan said to avoid running out of memory and dead batteries, as in the Adams County shooting, officers download their footage at the end of every shift and charge their devices daily.

Both said they would prefer to leave the cameras on all day, but the limitations of the batteries and memory make that impossible.

"Most of it would be nothing but guys driving down the road or eating lunch," Jordan said.

Tennant and Jordan also noted that finding needed clips could take lots of time for police to dig through hours and hours of footage, which would come at a high cost.

That's one of the very reasons the Moscow Police Department hasn't got on board with body cameras.

MPD Chief James Fry said his department would likely need to hire someone to index the videos and make needed redactions if it began using the devices.

"The cameras aren't that expensive," Fry said, "But you almost have to hire someone to manage all the IT video stuff."

Fry said Idaho's Legislature could help the situation by passing laws to provide guidelines and limit what footage is public.

A Washington bill passed in early March limits broad requests for police body-camera videos, as well as protects sensitive footage of dead bodies, minors or scenes shot in someone's home.

"Until Idaho does, it becomes a video nightmare," Fry said.

Tennant and Jordan said having the cameras also keeps officers and the public honest, as all parties know the are being recorded.

The prosecutors for Latah and Whitman counties understand the trouble with the cameras, but both said they are mostly helpful.

"Sometimes they don't record; sometimes the officer forgets to turn them on; sometimes the officer forgets to turn them off," Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said.

Thompson said new technology is being introduced in which cameras will begin recording one minute before an officer hits the button to begin recording.

He said best practice would be to have the camera recording during any public interaction, as most Palouse agencies seem to follow.

Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said there are problems with body cams but when it comes to providing a jury information on what happened at a particular incident, nothing portrays that incident like body cameras do.

The Daily News was unable to reach Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers to discuss his department's policies.

©2016 the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.