Officers in study strap on cameras

LR test exposes bandwidth limits

In this file photo, Little Rock police officer Derick Hilton wears a shoulder-mounted body camera during a demonstration for the media at the Northwest Patrol Division in Little Rock.
In this file photo, Little Rock police officer Derick Hilton wears a shoulder-mounted body camera during a demonstration for the media at the Northwest Patrol Division in Little Rock.

After 50 days of testing officer-worn body cameras -- 20 days more than originally planned -- the Little Rock Police Department is no closer to getting the cameras on the streets.

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A series of technical problems, including insufficient bandwidth for uploading the videos and problems keeping the devices in place, complicated the testing, an assistant chief said, adding that the department will continue researching body cameras and has plans to test other models.

Assistant Chief Alice Fulk said the biggest problem found was a lack of departmentwide fiber-optic Internet. Without a high-bandwidth connection at certain police precincts, officers found -- from the first day -- that uploading videos took too long.

"Until we get fiber at all of our precincts where the officers are checking out of, no product is really going to work as efficiently as it should," Fulk said.

Little Rock installed a citywide fiber-optic network in early 2014. The department began integrating its surveillance-camera network and other systems later that year, but the department's southwest division is still not updated.

Most of the problems in testing the Taser brand of body cameras were small, such as the cameras having good connections with the charging docks. The city's Internet Technology Department addressed "little glitches" throughout the test period, Fulk said.

The department is continuing to research the devices and is planning a second test soon. Fulk said the agency is looking now to test body cameras made by WatchGuard Video, a Texas-based company that equipped Little Rock police cars with dashboard cameras.

The Little Rock Police Department is among a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the country that have expressed interest in body cameras in recent years. The devices have been shown to greatly decrease instances of officers' use of force and of complaints against officers.

Dozens of agencies that have purchased or tested the cameras have said their aim is to compile video records of their officers' interactions with the public to ensure that proper procedures are followed and to help defend against lawsuits. Many departments have cited strained police-community relations and civil unrest in the wake of officer-involved killings in Baltimore; Ferguson, Mo.; and other American cities.

Little Rock police haven't set a date for the department's second test of the cameras. Fulk said the department will request a test of at least 45 days involving the same six officers as in the first test.

The initial test yielded a total of 1,011 videos amounting to more than 209 hours of video, according to Little Rock police records obtained through the state's Freedom of Information Act.

One officer testing the cameras was Aubrey Jackson, a civilian traffic warden at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field. He received a camera beginning in early May and recorded the most footage in the test, 47.6 hours in 194 videos.

Officer Jason Knowles, a patrolman assigned to downtown's River Market District, recorded the least. He took 12.1 hours in 42 videos.

The four other patrolmen who participated in the test each recorded at least 21 hours on 117 videos.

The officers responded to calls ranging from trespassing and reports of missing persons to aggravated assaults and robberies during the test, records show.

Officers were not required to record any public encounters during the testing. The department suggested that officers film certain situations and not others, such as interviews with sexual assault victims. It had no written policy on the testing.

Those equipped with the cameras submitted reports on the devices' usability and effectiveness. The documents were not yet available for review, but Fulk said a common complaint was wearability.

"The officers had mentioned that [the cameras] may bounce around. We're going to have to find a happy medium, because we don't want a situation where the officer is paying more attention to the camera than the situation ... there's going to be some videos that fall between the cracks just because of the size of the officer, the collar mounts moving around and things like that," she said.

North Little Rock police officers wrote similar assessments on body cameras after that department tested the devices in October. Six officers took turns wearing the devices over 30 days. The department released feedback from the officers in response to a public-records request.

Officer James Cavin wrote that an officer's point of view could be accurately captured by clipping the camera -- Taser's Axon Body model -- to the chest area of a uniform. That is, as long as the officer wasn't moving too fast.

"I noticed mine came almost completely dislodged during a foot chase of a suspect wanted for failure to appear on robbery charges," Cavin wrote. "Also during this foot chase, I did not realize that I didn't even have my camera on until after I had taken the suspect into custody, due to the incident occurring so fast."

The cameras record in 30-second cycles. The officer must press a button to begin recording.

North Little Rock police officer Matthew Peach tested Taser's Axon Flex body camera, a pen-shaped model intended to be clipped to sunglasses or a lapel.

"There were several mounting options [shown] to me when the camera was assigned. The lapel mount seemed to be the only reasonable mounting option, but with the weight of the camera and the mount, it weighed down the camera and would only point down to the ground, which defeated the purpose," Peach wrote.

The cameras otherwise functioned as intended, providing clear images and mobility, the officers reported.

One officer didn't enjoy the extra attention his camera drew.

"[I] got a little uncomfortable when others kept asking was it on," officer Rodney Thomas wrote.

North Little Rock police have spoken to representatives from body-camera manufacturers Prima Facie and Kustom Signals about testing their devices this year, according to emails released by the department.

Fulk said she believes that body cameras can be "very useful" to Little Rock police and that the testing was helpful in establishing the cameras' limitations.

"A lot of times it captured incidents, and there were a lot of times it may not have captured incidents. It's hard to capture what an officer sees," she said.

Metro on 07/06/2015

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