There has been a groundswell in recent months to equip police officers nationwide with body cameras. These cameras are becoming more commonplace in law enforcement agencies, but some officials still have concerns.
Following the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown during confrontations with police, President Barack Obama announced his proposal to spend more than $260 million of federal funding to help purchase 50,000 body cameras and provide additional training for police.
But according to Michael Ranalli, president of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, it isn't as easy as buying cameras and handing them out to officers. He says a more measured approach to adding body cameras is needed.
"It's not as simple as let's take, let's throw a bunch of money at this so that all officers can carry these cameras," Ranalli said. "It's not that simple. What needs to be focused on is also what are the other peripheral impacts that are going to have here."
Those impacts include not only long-term policy concerns, but short-term logistical issues, too.
"How long are we going to be required to store video?" Ranalli said. "And you can buy things on the grant and you can have the equipment, but the equipment wears out. And also storage fees. Whether you purchase your own servers or you contract with a company for cloud storage someplace, there are still going to be ongoing fees."
Ranalli says there are also privacy rights issues for those videotaped and questions of how to handle Freedom of Information Act requests for video obtained while on duty.
He does say the body cameras may provide additional information in the case of an officer review, but they still aren't perfect.
"They provide a limited perspective," Ranalli said. "And although it may be pointing in the general direction that the officer is, that doesn't mean that it is seeing what the officer is seeing."
Ranalli, who also serves as the police chief of Glenville in Schenectady County, says he has considered buying the cameras for his own department, but has laid back because of his own concerns about administering the program.
However, he says most police officers seem to like the cameras and think they can be valuable tools, though it does take time for police officers to learn how to use the cameras and feel comfortable with them. He equates it to the use of audio recorders in police interview rooms.
"Once they started using them, they love them, and would not want to do an interview without it," Ranalli said.
Ranalli also says having their own videos gives officers a chance to tell their side of the story in the case of an incident.
"Everybody is is videoing us, so I would rather have our perspective as well," Ranalli said. "It's very easy for people to take videos, edit them and then put them out there in a manner in which it would enflame public opinion. So I would much rather have our own full version in case something like that were to happen."
He says the push for more cameras might be an opportunity for the state and departments to address policies and accommodate the cameras in a more efficient way.