July 30, 2019 Great article in the recent issue of Police Chief Magazine: Body-Worn Cameras Show Policing Policy Can't Afford to Hide from Evidence by Alex Trouteaud, PhD, Director, Criminal Justice Research, Arnold Ventures. Dr. Trouteaud makes the case, citing the events of 2014 and the subsequent rapid and costly adoption of the fairly new body-worn camera technology, that police agencies should take a different approach in the future. He recommends agencies should express

November 29, 2018 The Fairfield CA Police Department is hosting a day-long body-worn camera meeting on December 14th, 2018 at the Art Koch Range and Training Regional Facility in Fairfield. The hours are 8am to 5pm. Myself, a team of Body-Worn Camera Subject Matter Experts, and staff from CNA will be in attendance. This is an excellent opportunity for California police departments to participate in facilitated discussions about current and emerging issues surrounding body-wor

August 1, 2018 A great short article on the importance of effective digital evidence management. The article focuses on storage and management challenges associated with body-worn camera and other types of video. Police departments should, however, anticipate that more and varied types of digital evidence may soon become accepted by our courts. This will require more storage and a more effective, integrated, evidence management tools. Departments should weigh this future stat

December 23, 2017 Just completed instructing Body-worn Camera Records: Law, Policy and Practice, back-to-back, with capacity attendees at Ft. Bragg CA. and Titusville FL. Great participation at both sites. Thanks to both host departments. This two day course provides in-depth practical information including legal requirements and best practices combined with a hands-on policy development exercise. Topics include: · BWC agency Philosophy, Policy, Privacy and Procedure ·

November 27, 2017 This morning, in a press conference held at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters, CNA publicly released what is perhaps the most important research to date on the efficacy of body-worn cameras in a major police department. The yearlong study, conducted in 2014-2015, followed 400 volunteer officers in a rigorous randomized controlled trial experiment. The study was funded by the National Institute of Justice with research conducted by CNA

November 25, 2017 Great summary by Chip Coldren of CNA. This should be required reading for everyone involved in making procurement, policy and research decisions regarding body-worn cameras. This research is important. How to interpret it is even more important. This summary will be especially useful for those in the media. In View: BWCs and the Results of Randomized Experiments

August 20, 2016 The Louisville Police Department is being criticized for its lack of oversight in conducting "regular, random audits" as required department policy. The article states that the department "isn't keeping track of how the cameras are used." Compliance auditing is an essential program and risk management function. I recently wrote the first part of a series on BWC risk management and use of force for In View on the Body-Worn Camera Training and Technical Assistan

August 20, 2016 Handling public records requests for body camera recordings can be a daunting and costly challenge for any department. I had the pleasure of speaking to over 175 attendees at the 2016 National Law Enforcement Records Management Conference in New Orleans August 8-10 on the topic of body camera public records requests. The conference was presented by PRI Management Group, recognized as the premier law enforcement information management consultancy in America. I

August 11, 2016 Much of the activity around police body cameras has focused on getting cameras into the field. However, law enforcement agencies are still trying to identify answers to key questions about how captured videos will be stored, accessed and shared. I was recently interviewed by the Center for Digital Government about how new storage technology is offering agencies a way to choose storage models that best suit their needs while allowing for better use of all store

July 17, 2016 Bloomberg Businessweek published an article on Taser Corporation in its July 18th edition. The author spent two days with me and my team at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department getting the perspectives of an agency using Taser products. She also did a ride along with one of our BWC wearing officers. Read what she wrote and my comments here.

July 6, 2016 This is first in a series of articles I’ve written for “In View” on the CNA Body-Worn Camera Training and Technical Assistance Website: Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are rapidly being deployed in police departments around the country. These deployments come with a host of expectations, as well as challenges. Departments shouldn’t overlook, or underestimate, the simple premise that the day the first BWCs are deployed they begin to document department operations, policy

June 25, 2016 This news story is representative of a growing trend that seems to be more common as departments push forward with body-worn camera implementation. Local governments are being asked to commit large amounts of taxpayer dollars or make critical policy and implementation decisions on camera programs. Unfortunately, for both the departments and local officials, they are increasingly discovering “issues” with either the vendor, the equipment, selection processes or

June 17, 2016 A recent report published by Dr. Barak Ariel et al., and now posted on the BJA Body-Worn Camera (BWC) Toolkit website (https://www.bja.gov/bwc/pdfs/BWC-Report.pdf), is already being used by some to question the efficacy of body-worn cameras and the need to implement a program. I urge everyone to read this report carefully especially the Discussion and Conclusions section. A solid BWC policy on activation should start from a position that the camera will always b

June 17, 2016 Ask yourself what your department would do if this happened? Was this the improper action of a poorly trained officer? Is this the culture of all patrol officers? Was it an honest mistake? Is department policy clear in this area? Regardless of the answer, departments must have a plan in place to address such shortcomings. The camera will capture much of what officers do on a daily basis in excrutiating detail . Departments now “own” these shortcomings in a way t

June 17, 2016 This news report highlights the importance of developing sound tactics for the use of body-worn cameras. Officers should be trained to activate their cameras as soon as they are dispatched to a call or prior to officer initiated contacts. Officers should consider activating their cameras prior to their portable radios. Seldom does an officer begin a contact without their radio turned on. This simple “muscle memory” process should become second nature in all bu

May 8, 2016 Interesting article in today’s Columbus Post: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/05/08/columbus-needs-to-navigate-common-police-body-camera-issues.html While some of the information in this article is outdated or misinterpreted, it does highlight a very critical aspect of any body-worn camera program and that is policy compliance. It’s not enough to just be specific about activations and deactivations in policy. The policy must be enforced. It is i

April 30, 2016 Body-Worn Cameras are changing the face of policing in America. Almost every police agency in the country has either deployed them, is in the process of deploying them or is exploring their feasibility. What role do they play in what are arguably the most high risk – high liability operations conducted by a police department? Should they be standard issue? When are they activated? Do the activities they record reveal operational sensitive information? What happ

April 24, 2016 I recently had the opportunity to co-host a workshop on Body-Worn Cameras and Use of Force at the 2016 BJA Body-Worn Camera Training and Technical Assistance National Meeting, April 18-19, hosted by CNA Analysis & Solutions in Washington DC. This was a gathering of all the 72 agencies from around the country that had been awarded funding the 2016 BJA BWC Pilot Implementation Program Grant. I spoke about the implications of BWCs on use of force and how an agency

April 4, 2016 Great article by Professor Seth Stoughton, Assistant Professor at University of South Carolina School of Law, on what body-worn cameras can really “see”. The most impactful excerpt: This confirms what Professor Stoughton has found in his own presentations with judges, lawyers and students: What we see in police video footage tends to be shaped by what we already believe. “Our interpretation of video is just as subject to cognitive biases as our interpretation of

March 27, 2016 Reporters from The Chicago Tribune recently spent a couple of days with The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to observe changes the department had made in recent years to its use of force policy and training. The focus of the story was on de-escalation training, transparency, and accountability, and how the same changes could be applied in the Chicago Police Department. They took an in-depth look at how body-worn cameras play an important role in the pr