JONESBORO -- Jonesboro police officers will soon wear body cameras while on duty after the Craighead County city received a $12,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant.
The small cameras, which are worn on officers' uniforms or mounted on sunglasses, will increase safety for both police and civilians, Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin said.
"It takes the doubt out of things," he said. "If we ever have any complaints or situations, all you have to do is push a button and look at the film."
The city will buy 10 of the cameras, along with 18 stun guns, after aldermen approved using the grant money during their meeting Tuesday. Perrin said he will travel to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24 to meet with the Justice Department and hopes to obtain more grant money for more cameras.
The city has 153 uniformed officers.
Newly appointed Police Chief Rick Elliott said he will give the cameras to officers who are on "high risk" patrols.
"They'll go to our officers who are on special assignment or to some on bicycle patrols," said Elliott, who was named the chief Thursday. "These cameras are designed to protect our officers."
Perrin cited the Aug. 9 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., which sparked protests in the St. Louis suburb and a national debate about the use of deadly force by police.
"We saw what happened in Missouri," Perrin said. "If that happened here, we'd have the cameras to help show us what really happened."
Two years ago, Jonesboro's police force also drew national attention.
On July 28, 2012, officers arrested Chavis Carter, 21, of Southaven, Miss.; searched him for weapons; handcuffed him; and placed him in the back of a patrol car. Moments later, Carter died of a gunshot wound in his right temple. A state Crime Laboratory medical examiner ruled that the fatal shooting was self-inflicted.
The shooting drew criticism from civil leaders, who questioned the officers' account.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march of about 300 people through downtown Jonesboro to protest the investigation of the shooting.
The traffic stop was recorded by officer Ron Marsh's dashboard camera on his patrol car, but video did not show the shooting. Recorded audio taken from Marsh's police radio also contained gaps about the time Carter was shot.
"It's either the worst comedy of errors or the Police Department is hiding something," Benjamin Irwin, an attorney with the Memphis branch of The Cochran Firm that was retained by Carter's family in a civil suit against the city, said shortly after the shooting.
"If we had cameras then, we'd know all the W's," Perrin said. "The why, where and what happened."
Only a few Arkansas law enforcement agencies currently use body cameras.
The Austin Police Department in Lonoke County will equip its three full-time officers with the cameras in a few weeks, Chief Tony Bryant said.
"We got them to protect us," Bryant said. "A dashboard camera can only pick up so much. If we have a perpetrator pointing a weapon at an officer and our officer is telling him to get on the ground, the public can see what actually happened."
He said video of police altercations taken by residents with cellphones have actually helped diminish respect of officers because the videos show only a portion of what happens.
"With body cameras, we can see the beginning of the incident," he said. "I think these cameras will validate what officers' actions are. It also protects citizens. I'm happy we will be using them."
Officers with the Ward and Beebe police departments and deputies with the Lonoke County sheriff's office also use the body cameras.
Arkansas State Police officers do not have body cameras but use dashboard cameras, spokesman Bill Sadler said.
A recent New York Times survey on police body cameras used in Rialto, Calif., showed an 84 percent decline in the number of complaints that residents filed against the town's officers after the body cameras' use began. Reports of excessive police force during arrests also dropped by 60 percent, the survey said.
The Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that studies and improves policing in the United States, found that there was a 50 percent reduction in the number of use-of-force reports in police departments that use the cameras.
"The main thing we want to do is protect our officers," Elliott said of his Jonesboro police officers. "But we also want to ensure the safety of our citizens."
Metro on 09/08/2014