All NJ state troopers will wear body cameras
New Jersey Sept 17 2018 By this time next year, all the New Jersey state troopers you encounter will be wearing body cameras.
The welcome move provides the public with a better window into the behaviors of the men and women charged with protecting us. It also works both ways, protecting those troopers from unwarranted allegations of misconduct on the job.
Proponents of the devices, which have been growing in use since they were introduced in Rialto, California, six years ago, say they create transparency, promote accountability, and ultimately reduce violence.
More and more cops and administrators apparently are hearing the message: A study reported last December by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service found that one-third of the 18,000 law-enforcement agencies in the country have begun using the technology.
Here’s a look at police dashboard camera videos in light of the latest state Supreme Court ruling on Monday.
State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced that $1.5 million for the cameras will come from criminal forfeiture funds.
In this most densely populated state, thousands or even millions of encounters between the police and the public take place every year, the vast majority of them civil.
When they know their actions are going to be caught on camera, Grewal said, all parties tend to behave better.
“We invite the scrutiny,” the state’s top law-enforcement official said. “It is those out-of-context cellphone videos that sometimes paint a negative picture of an interaction.”
Patrick Callahan, state police superintendent, said most of his troopers are comfortable with using the devices, welcoming the opportunity to show interactions from their perspective.
Clearly, body cameras are not the equivalent of a magic wand you can wave and make people trust their local police.
That will take a lot of bridge-building and sustained community outreach, as well as recruiting officers from the neighborhoods they are ultimately going to serve.
But the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization that works with police forces around the country, says the footage gathered from encounters on the street can serve as a valuable teaching tool to help both rookies and experienced cops understand what works – and what doesn’t.
Body cameras “can be useful as diagnostic rather than prescription,” notes a recent report issued by the non-profit. “They can show us where ingrained police behavior has gone awry. All the better that they produce public video that police forces and critics alike can observe and interrogate.”
In the end, these devices are just one tool in the law-enforcement world’s toolbox. As Callahan pointed out, everything depends on the person wearing that camera, and how well he or she has been trained to treat members of the public.
NJ.com
