Cincinnati police to begin wearing body cams Aug. 1

Some Cincinnati Police Department officers will begin wearing body cams August 1, officials said in a committee meeting Monday that outlined a gradual district-by-district rollout of the new technology.

City officials pushed back the original July 1 deadline to avoid the pitfalls other police departments have experienced in implementing the policy too quickly, Chief Elliot Isaac said at the meeting.

“We want to be methodical in our approach. Other cities have rushed into this and have not been successful. One of the things that separates us from other departments is we do our homework. We want to be the example do things the right way,” Isaac said after the meeting.

Approximately 700 Taser Axon Body 2 cameras will be deployed starting August 1 in the Central Business District, the smallest of the department’s six districts. Every three weeks, a progressively larger district will implement the body cams. District 3 will receive the most body cams overall and is scheduled to start on November 14.

The schedule is tentative and is based on the best case scenario, said Captain Douglas Wiesman.

“I fully expect some hurdles along the way. If not a single thing goes wrong, from docking stations to cables to cameras to whatever, we’ll be done by the end of December. If we run into bumps and bruises, it’ll be until January or February,” Wiesman said.

City Council’s Law and Public Safety Committee held the event Monday and the committee’s chair, Councilman Christopher Smitherman, said the rollout should be a national example.

“Other municipalities should consider and learn from the timeline. It’s not as easy as just putting the equipment on. Those cameras will not be all be deployed, all 700 of them, until the first quarter of next year. It’s so important for the public to know that there’s no conspiracy, we’re not trying to hide anything in the event that lightning does indeed strike,” Smitherman said.

The issue of how Ohio Public Records Law applies to police body camera footage is currently awaiting a decision from the Ohio Supreme Court.  A 2015 case filed by The Cincinnati Enquirer, along with the Associated Press and the four local television stations, challenged whether Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters correctly classified the body camera footage from the Ray Tensing/Sam DuBose interaction as investigatory material, according to Enquirer attorney Jack Greiner. Based on that classification, Deters argued that he had the discretion to withhold the footage indefinitely.

The Enquirer and the other media outlets argued that the footage was not investigatory material and was not exempt from the prompt production requirement of the Public Records Act.

“I think the body cam footage should be treated as part of the investigation," Smitherman said. "I want to be as open and as responsive to people requesting those videos, but in officer-involved shootings, like the one with Officer [Sonny] Kim, I don’t want to see video of our officers being murdered on social media."

Despite what other officials said, Wiseman said he would follow whatever decision the courts make.

The Taser Axon Body 2 has a 10-hour battery life, according to Sgt. Ryan Smith, who was a part of the team that determined the right equipment, including having discussions with over 30 agencies as well as Harvard University’s CyberLaw clinic.

The video will be high definition with a wide, 142-degree view to mimic the human eye. The audio quality is “fantastic” according to Smith and avoids wind interference to pick up human voices more clearly.

Officers at the end of their shift will plug the camera into a docking station, which will upload the video securely to a cloud-based server developed by Microsoft and the FBI.

The software included has redaction capabilities, making the turnaround for any public record request much faster and more seamless, according to Harry Black, city manager.

“Volume will dictate the turnaround, however,” Black said repeatedly at the meeting in reference to how quickly the department will respond to requests for footage.

All videos will be stored for a 90-day period unless it’s part of an ongoing matter. Officers are not required to inform citizens they are being recorded.

A buffer time of 30 seconds is recorded when the officers activate the camera.

Officers must activate their body cams for all of the following events:

1. All calls for service and self-initiated activities. Officers must activate the camera when arriving at a scene.
2. While responding to calls for service with lights and sirens activated.
3. During the entirety of traffic and foot pursuits.
4. Traffic stops, including vehicle investigations and occupants already stopped or parked.
5. When assisting other officers on any call for service or self-initiated activity.
6. All requests for consent to search without warrant, including searches of persons, buildings or vehicles.
7. Requests for searches and deployment of drug-detention canines involving vehicles, when practical.
8. Recordings of all persons physically arrested and being transported in CPD vehicle to any location, until the police car camera is activated for transport.
9. Officers have discretion to activate body cams when they believe they have evidentiary value

Wiesman said there will be an expected learning curve for veteran officers, but new recruits will be trained with the equipment.

A seven-year contract with Taser, valued at around $5.5 million, should be finalized soon, Wiesman said, which he believes shows the department’s commitment to the process.

City officials will hold a review of the body cam policy in early 2017.