During her first State of the District address on Tuesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that every Metropolitan Police Department patrol officer will be equipped with a body camera in the near future. But some groups pushing for police reform actually oppose body camera implementation.
“So last October, the MPD launched a pilot program to test the use of body cameras,” said Bowser, who began her mayoral term in January. “And today I’m here to say that the pilot is over and that we will expand the use of body cameras to all MPD patrol officers in the next 18 months. It’s the right thing to do for our officers and our residents. Accountability is embedded, and will be embedded in everything this administration does.” .
The $1 million pilot program, which was coordinated by Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Vincent Gray, the former mayor of D.C, involved 165 officers using five different camera models. Participants were required to turn their cameras on during “all dispatched and self-initiated calls-for-service; all contacts, stops, and frisks….tactical activities…use of force situations; arrests” and various other encounters. Prior to the program’s launch, Lanier anticipated an 80 percent decrease in the number of police complaints with body cameras in the field. A proposed budget for the 2016 fiscal year stipulates that $5.1 million will go towards 2,800 body cameras, ensuring all MPD officers are equipped within the next 18 months.
But local organizations fighting for police reform remain unconvinced that body cams can increase MPD’s accountability, on various grounds. On one hand, some believe the cameras will allow officers to craft the narrative of their choosing. As Philip Fornaci of the Campaign Against Police Abuse explained, “Cameras are worn by police, so they are, by definition, not going to capture police conduct. They’ll capture the people who they interact with.” Theoretically, he said, dash cameras can film more activity, and even then, officers can choose to turn the camera on and off when they choose. That happened in February, when a St. Louis officer warned her colleagues that they were being filmed kicking and tasing a suspect.
Despite concerns over heightened surveillance, major civil liberties groups, such as the ACLU and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, have lent their support for body cameras, stating the footage is a step toward officer accountability. But that support hinges on officers having no way of tampering with the footage or collecting data that infringes on individuals’ privacy. The ACLU also says people on film “should have access to, and the right to make copies of [those] recordings.”
Grassroots organizers in D.C. don’t think that will be the case. Fornaci, a private investigator who previously ran D.C. Prisoners Project thinks that video surveillance in local correctional indicates the usefulness that body cam footage will have. Jails are required to videotape cell extractions and use of force, but officials regurgitate excuses as to why they can’t produce footage. “Those tapes never surface except for at the convenience of the officers or system. They turn off cameras, they forget it, and we’ve heard things like ‘there’s no film,’ as if there’s film in video cameras these days.” Jail footage, he contends, is rarely given up upon request, so footage from body cameras may be withheld as well.
Ken Nero, a core organizer for DC Ferguson identified another major weakness of body cam implementation. The 32-year-old D.C. native doesn’t believe the city has the oversight infrastructure to effectively process, investigate, and respond to complaints of officer misconduct. “Because we have a citizen review board that’s a paper tiger, they can only make recommendations. MPD can just ignore the review board. These body cameras don’t really serve any purpose, because there’s no accountability. If there were systems in place where there would be accountability for their actions, then cameras would provide proof to verify they were committing crimes or violating policies,” he told ThinkProgress.
DC Ferguson and CAPA also agree that body cams skirt around more pressing concerns, including jumpouts and racially disparate arrests for marijuana possession and other nonviolent crimes. Research shows that D.C. is already one of the most heavily policed major cities, with 61 officers for every 10,000 residents, and officers disproportionately patrol communities of color. Body cameras will ostensibly become another way to monitor black and brown residents.
“They’re being promoted as a panacea for police misconduct, and we don’t see that as the case. More information is better than less, but it’s not much of a solution. It’s a diversion, rather than working on other solutions to the problems,” said Fornaci.
Nero continued, “It’s not gonna bring about any kind of justice or substantive change. We have examples that demonstrate that body cameras don’t work: Tamir Rice, Rafael Briscoe in DC with the jumpouts, Eric Garner. Audre Lorde said ‘you can’t dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools.’”