Police begin wider body-camera use after months of testing

BOSTON -- After months of testing, many of the nation's big-city police forces plan to expand their use of body cameras by the summer, but the number of officers with such gear still will be relatively small, an Associated Press review found.

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other deaths at the hands of police around the U.S. have led to demands officers be issued wearable cameras to deter misconduct and document shootings and other clashes.

But because of cost concerns, union resistance and other factors, the rollout has been slower than some cities envisioned.

An AP look at the nation's 20 largest local departments found Chicago has begun issuing the devices to more than 2,000 officers, or less than 17 percent of its 12,000-member force, though it says it eventually will offer them across the department. Philadelphia has begun equipping about 5 percent of its force and Houston nearly 6 percent.

New York, the nation's largest city police force, said it plans to buy 1,000 cameras by the summer, or enough to outfit less than 3 percent of its 34,000-plus officers. But the department said Tuesday there is no date for when those will be put to use and no plan as yet to equip more officers.

For some cities, the expansion comes in anticipation of the summer, when crime typically rises. For others, the availability of federal money to help pay for the technology is a factor.

Some suggest in many cities, the number of devices in use is far smaller than politicians and law-enforcement leaders promised over the past year and a half.

"I would suspect we're woefully short," said James Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. "They make these lofty pronouncements, and then they don't put their money where their mouth is."

Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said cities are moving fairly swiftly, considering the complex questions at stake.

"I am not necessarily troubled by the pace," he said. "This is a major technological investment. It is reasonable for police to go slow."

Police have warned processing, reviewing and storing huge amounts of digital footage will require more manpower and entail significant costs.

In Los Angeles, the city council balked at a plan to outfit about 7,000 officers with body cameras by the end of this year, amid concerns over its projected $58 million cost over five years. The department, which rolled out 860 cameras last year, now hopes to meet its goal by the fall of 2017 at the earliest.

In Nassau County on Long Island, New York, the police officers' union late last year halted a small pilot effort, arguing to a state labor panel the department imposed the plan without negotiating.

Other departments are pushing forward.

San Francisco's police force, which has no cameras in use, said it will deploy 800 by July, covering about 37 percent of its more than 2,100 members. The department expects to have 1,800 officers equipped by the end of the year.

Baltimore, which erupted in riots last year after the death of Freddie Gray from a spinal injury suffered in police custody, expects to have 500 officers using them by this month, or about 17 percent of its force. It hopes to have most officers equipped with them by early 2018.

Boston's 2,100-member police force promises to launch a six-month test of 100 cameras by July. Some residents said the rollout is overdue.

"At some point, Boston could have a Ferguson," Rachel Idowu said. "Let's put the cameras on to prevent that from happening. Rather than be reactive, let's be proactive."

Others have balked at the projected cost of $3 million to $5 million to expand it department-wide.

"We need to be judicious," said Juan Seoane, a Boston detective and resident. "You're going to have to raise taxes, or you're going to have to take things away from the community."

Civil-rights groups said they are less concerned about the pace of adoption than about how the police intend to use the cameras. Many policies don't adequately address privacy and civil-rights concerns, such as when officers should activate the cameras, how long video should be stored and when the public can see it, they said.

In Los Angeles, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union and others last month came out against the department's body-camera guidelines because, among other things, they said the release of footage to the public is up to the police chief unless ordered by the courts.

"We aren't on 'Team Camera' yet," said Sakira Cook, legal counsel for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a Washington-based coalition that includes the NAACP, ACLU and dozens of other organizations involved in the debate.

"The jury's still out on whether cameras are a useful tool in reducing excessive force in policing. We're also concerned cameras can be used as tools of surveillance and increase racial profiling."