Dallas Police Asking For Hundreds More Body Cams
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DALLAS(CBSDFW.COM) - The Dallas Police Department is upping its commitment to body cameras. The department's asking the city council Wednesday to approve 400. Then another 600 by 2020. Police body cameras have been a pilot program so far in Dallas, but they hope to eventually equip every street officer with one.
At Tuesday's Public Safety Committee meeting, Dallas Police put the finishing touches on how they plan to use the cameras, if the city council approves its request. Beyond being unemotional witnesses, cameras can also change attitudes.
"People's conduct tends to change when they're being recorded," says Deputy Chief Tom Lawrence. "Both the officers and citizens themselves, they tend to become more civil."
The department wants a cloud-based system where officers can wear the cameras on their shoulders or their chests. In an unusual show of unanimity, local police labor organizations are also on board with the project, saying it makes their work transparent while protecting officers who follow procedure.
"We get a lot of false accusation on officers, now we're going to be able to pull it up and get video of what actually occurred out there," says Dallas Police Association President Ron Pinkston.
"It helps reduce complaints on officers," says Richard Todd of the Fraternal Order of Police.
While officers will have to be trained to remember to turn it on, part of the system is automatic when a Taser is unholstered, any body cam within 30 feet will automatically come on, giving multiple angles on an incident. Still, everyone cautions that depending on where they're worn, the cameras may not see everything officers do.
"It can't replicate the human eye so we want people to understand, yes it may capture some things but it's not reasonable to expect it to catch everything," says Deputy Chief Lawrence.
"Just because we're purchasing these cameras it's not going to be a panacea," says Cletus Judge of the Dallas Black Police Association.
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