Crime & Safety
Cameras On Cops: Should It Happen Here?
Complaints against officers fell dramatically, as did use of force, when Rialto officers got hooked up.
Video technology has improved dramatically in recent years. For example, it's not unusual for motocross riders to strap a camera to their helmet to show what he sees while flying through the air.
Would the technology work with the Newport Beach Police Department?
In Los Angeles, City Councilman Mitch Englander wants the police department to begin testing out cameras its officers can wear on their bodies.
Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff last week touched off discussion about the cameras when he vowed that they be in place by next year.
Complaints against officers in the San Bernardino County city of Rialto fell by 88 percent and use of force went down almost 60 percent after its police force began using the cameras, according to a University of Cambridge study cited by Englander.
His motion asks that the police department be directed to work with a company called Taser International Inc. to "identify the styles of body camera to be worn" and test out the "police-worn camera technology" on 25 police officers.
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Officers who do not work patrol—possibly from the SWAT, K-9 and Metro units—should be the ones to test the technology, according to the motion, which was assigned to the Public Safety Committee.
The police department would be asked to report back in 90 days with findings from the field test.
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