The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Making one of the tools we already had better”
By Alissa Johnson
Mt. Crested Butte police officers have added a new device to their uniforms this summer: a body-worn camera made by Taser. Implemented in May, the camera is hard to miss. It’s a small black box a bit bigger than a deck of cards and worn somewhere on the front of their uniforms. It gives officers the ability to record their interactions with the public up close rather than relying on cameras on the dashes of their cars.
While the Forest Service uses body cameras, the Mt. Crested Butte Police Department is the first local law enforcement agency to implement such a program. The department now has higher quality visual and audio records of incidents—which it hopes will benefit both officers and the public by providing transparency and a more sophisticated tool to assist them in fulfilling their responsibilities.
Why cameras?
The use of cameras is not new to the Mt. Crested Butte Police Department. The department has since 2009 relied on in-car cameras on the dash of their vehicles to record incidents. Those recordings, however, had their limitations.
According to public information officer Marjorie Trautman there have been situations where an officer and the person they were interacting with moved out of visual or audio range. Now, the camera moves with the officer.
“We are beyond that limitation, which is fantastic,” she said.
The result is an up-close recording that officers can use to fill out reports. It also becomes part of official case files and can be used for training purposes.
“It’s making one of the tools we already had better,” said officer Joe Pecharich, who led the effort to test and select the recording device. He said officers will turn on the cameras during any officer-initiated contact or any time an officer feels it might be beneficial, such as responding to an alarm.
Pecharich pointed out that when an officer arrives on the scene there are many details they need to pay attention to. Having a quality recording allows officers to fill in the details of the full picture after the fact.
“That is the greatest use. It allows us to not be so focused on getting all the information when we’re talking right then. We can get all the big things, the stuff that we need right then, and then later come back and find all the other little things to put the story together,” Pecharich said.
How the cameras work
Pecharich and the department tested about five different body cameras before settling on the Axon Body 2 made by Taser. It’s a second-generation camera that records as well as the human eye in all types of light—some would argue better.
When the camera is on, it is in a sort of standby mode, recording a 30-second visual loop that is discarded unless the officer activates a longer recording. When an officer turns on the recording function, the Axon keeps the previous 30 seconds and continues recording with both video and sound.
While recording, the Axon beeps every two minutes and, depending on its settings, might have a light on as well. Pecharich said officers sometimes turn that light off during night shifts because it’s very bright and distracting. Colorado law does not require officers to tell an individual they are being recorded, but the beep provides an audible indication that the camera is on.
Everything that officers record then gets stored on an off-site server that the department rents from Taser.
“The only people that have access to any of that is our agency,” Pecharich said.
The department can then share those recordings with outside entities like the district attorney’s office (DA) using an email link, much like file sharing sites such as Dropbox. The department has the option to let someone view the video, download it, or share it, and the system also tracks who’s viewed the video.
The one thing officers can’t do is edit their recordings. “The possibility of editing or changing the video is nonexistent. The only editing we can do is place a bookmark,” Pecharich said.
Part of the public record
Just like an officer’s report or a ticket issued during a traffic stop, the videos become part of the public record and state statutes dictate how long they remain on the servers.
If a charge is made related to a specific incident, then any related video is delivered to the DA as part of the case report. The defense attorney also has the right to request the videos, which it secures through the DA.
In some cases, when multiple officers respond to the same scene, there will be multiple videos from different viewpoints, offering a broader perspective of what happened.
“We have not had, in the past, three or four officers show up to an incident and everybody’s got a camera, so there’s a lot more video. So that’s a plus, and at the same time, wow. That’s a lot more video for everybody—for us to look through, for the district attorney to look through, for the defense to look through—but again, it makes for a far more complete picture of the scene,” Trautman said.
She believes that’s a benefit for everyone involved.
“Video has made for a cleaner court process for both the prosecution and the defense. I think it’s valuable on both sides of the table,” Trautman said.
One of the first
While the use of body cameras by officers is growing nationwide, it’s difficult to get an exact figure of how many departments use them. Estimates over the last couple of years seem to range from a quarter to a third of all departments, and that number has likely grown. A 2015 Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training Board study found that 47 agencies, or about 28 percent of Colorado agencies, used cameras, with another 93 considering their use. And according to the Denver Post, the Denver police rolled out body cameras in January of this year.
In the Gunnison Valley, the Mt. Crested Butte Police Department is the first local law enforcement agency to employ body cameras. Crested Butte’s chief marshal, Tom Martin, confirmed that no one on the Crested Butte Marshal’s Office is currently wearing a body camera.
“We are interested in wearing them in the future and anticipate that we will be in the next couple of years. We are taking a wait and see approach because of costs and the technology seems to be evolving quite often,” Martin said.
Sheriff Rick Besecker confirmed that the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Department has looked into the possibility as well and “will obviously be embracing the concept; no timeline has been set as of yet.” The department is working out logistical complications and financial concerns.
The Gunnison Police Department is researching cameras and plans to purchase some by the end of the year according to chief Keith Robinson. And Lee Ann Loupe, public affairs officer for the Forest Service, confirmed that its law enforcement personnel wear body cameras for their safety and the public’s.
For the Mt. Crested Butte department, the timing made sense to implement such a program. Pecharich said the technology of the cameras has evolved to make them a useful tool. In addition, the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council approved a budget that included the program. According to town finance director Karl Trujillo, the town spent a little over $12,300 on body cameras, including a three-year storage agreement, well under a budget of $13,000.
Benefits of cameras
Nationwide, studies are emerging that suggest the use of body-worn cameras benefits officers and communities. According to the Huffington Post, a University of South Florida report examined their use at the Orlando Police Department and found that the number of “use-of-force” incidents between March 2014 and February 2015 dropped 53 percent among officers with cameras. Civilian complaints dropped 65 percent.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a study in Rialto, Calif. found citizen complaints against police decreased from 24 to three in a year-long period, and use-of-force incidents declined from 61 to 25.
Locally, use-of-force incidents and complaints are not a significant issue and don’t appear to be a big factor in implementing the cameras.
According to Trautman, the Mt. Crested Butte Police Department does not receive many complaints, but she noted that cameras certainly provide a more accurate picture of what takes place.
“It takes away ‘he said, she said’ in a lot of circumstances, whether it’s two individuals and the officer is observing them have the interaction, or it’s an officer-to-individual interaction,” Trautman said.
She and Pecharich both believe that the cameras enhance procedures and practices already in place, from improving case reports and court procedures to providing training and coaching opportunities for officers. Overall, it’s the camera’s larger field of vision that makes all of that possible.
“It’s not six feet in front of the patrol vehicle and then the hood of car and then the camera. It’s much closer. You can see the facial expressions. You can see on camera if there are blood-shot, watery eyes and slurred speech at a traffic stop. It’s going to be better tool for us in helping to determine whether or not we have a situation,” Trautman said.
“My favorite part is that it’s a tool to help us get the full story as soon as possible,” Pecharich said. “Obviously in the past officers have been able to get the full story, but here it’s so much quicker. It’s clearer, and they’re extremely reliable. Of all the applications, the investigatory tool is the number one thing.”
