Poplar Bluff cops now wearing body cams

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The Poplar Bluff Police Department went live New Year's Day with its officers wearing body cameras as they patrol the streets and answer calls.

"We are very excited to have this opportunity to wear the Taser Axon body cameras in the performance of our duties," deputy chief Jeff Rolland said.

The department, he said, recently bought body cameras for all 44 of its commissioned officers.

"We've currently been through the initial training session with representatives from Taser," Rolland said earlier in the week.

Cape Girardeau officers also tested Taser Axon body cameras in July.

Poplar Bluff officers have been learning the best camera angle for their individual body types, as well as how to upload the video to Evidence.com and to manage that evidence after it's uploaded, Rolland said.

"For the last 14 years, we've been proactive, and we like to think we're still on the cutting edge of technology and police practices," said chief Danny Whiteley. "Furthermore, this is something I feel is coming down the pike from the bureaucratic nitwits in Washington, so we're going to be out front on it."

Since the "infiltration of cellphone technology, I think 90-plus percent of officers nationwide assume they are being recorded already," Whiteley said. "This is not anything new to the majority of them."

The cameras, Rolland said, will be turned on for the officers' entire shift.

"The technology that has been [integrated] in the system, the camera is always recording video footage, which is overwritten every 30 seconds," he said.

When an officer activates the record button, the camera "captures that previous 30 seconds of video and [then] starts recording audio as well," Rolland explained. " ... Once he hits the record button, [the camera]is fully recording until he presses it again and stops that recording."

At the end of the officers' tour of duty, "when he places his camera in the docking station, that footage is automatically uploaded to Evidence.com for retrieval and use in criminal prosecutions if needed," Rolland said. The footage will "give additional evidence to prosecutors to prosecute cases that we become involved in," Rolland said.

Having body cameras record officers' actions is going to show the public, defense attorneys and potential juries the "real story of what law enforcement nationwide deal with on a daily basis," Whiteley said.

By the time nine of 10 defendants get to court, "they are sober or they have wound down some from their drug-induced tirade," Whiteley said.

"To expand upon what the chief said, in a court setting, a defendant has been cleaned up, dressed up and has been coached by their attorney on how to speak and act in the courtroom," Rolland said. "The video is going to portray them in their true character as the officer is dealing with them.

"As a law enforcement agency, we look forward to providing that raw footage to both prosecutors and juries, so they can then judge that defendant based upon their actions on the street."

Retention of the footage, according to Whiteley, is determined by the "categories of crimes," such as felony, misdemeanor or traffic stop, and the data is kept for a specific amount of time as designated by the Missouri Attorney General's Office.

Only two administrative officers have access to the uploaded data from each camera, which will "quell any rumors," Whiteley said. "[The data] is not something than can be changed, edited or manipulated."

Since these are such "new and untested tools, as far as we have determined, no department has hard and set policies to govern" their use, Whiteley said. "We're doing the best we can at this time and [their use] is a work in progress."

Whiteley expects the department will adjust its policies and procedures about the cameras' use in the next six months to a year.

"These are so new that the most prestigious accrediting law enforcement agency internationally, CALEA, of which we are a member, doesn't have a policy on them," said Whiteley, who thanked city manager Heath Kaplan and the city council for their "unanimous" support for the "law enforcement improvements" with the body cameras.