Police Officer Dash-cams
Dashboard-mounted cameras in police cars are intended to improve the transparency of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement officials like dash-cams because they can exonerate officers who are accused of illegal or unethical behavior. Civil rights advocates like dash-cams because they can provide evidence of improper or unlawful police activity.
So why aren’t Seattle Police officers always using dash-cams?
That’s what an SPD Office of Professional Accountability in-house audit is trying to determine. The OPA is investigating allegations of officers failing to utilize dash-cams during their traffic stops, vehicle searches, auto pursuits, and contacts with citizens. These dashcams are designed to record video footage of whatever is taking place in front of the squad car. (A microphone attached to each officer records the audio.)
Though the video cameras are installed in SPD vehicles, they must be activated by hand by an officer. The OPA is trying to figure out why dash-cams have sometimes not been turned on when they should have been. (The department has also been sued by a citizen who claims that SPD denies the existence of certain dash-cam videos which in fact do exist.)
Dash-cam video is frequently used as evidence in DUI cases by both prosecutors and defense attorneys. So people on both sides of the criminal justice system would benefit from consistent use of dash-cam video systems.
The OPA audit is focusing on issues such as technological factors, departmental policy, state law, and officer training related to the use of dash-cam video systems. The head of the OPA says that the results of the audit should be ready later this fall.