As the tone get more serious surrounding police officers and body cameras, Scottsdale Police Department has strived to be on the forefront of the technology since 2013.
As of now, the department has 60 body cameras, but they hope to add about 50 more units per year until the 302 selected officers are all equipped. Officer Daniel Safsten from the Scottsdale Police Department detailed the department’s thought process when obtaining new cameras.
“The camera is essentially a tool and obviously it is technology that changes over time,” he said. “By adding incrementally we are able to plan ahead to foresee what type of challenges we have fiscally or materially with the cameras. It allows us to stay with the curve instead of buying everything right now.”
The department initially bought 10 cameras in 2013 with money from the police department budget and has been adding on to the arsenal with Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization or RICO funds.
“We are using RICO funds to add on to our supply,” Safsten said. “That is asset forfeiture from illegal trafficking of goods.”
By having the technology, Scottsdale Police Department gets to set the rules with regards to how the equipment is used. Safsten said that the equipment must be turned on manually so there is a certain amount of human error that can be expected with the fairly new equipment.
“We are trained to turn the camera on with any citizen contact and to record for the duration of the contact with the citizen,” he said. “Once that contact is complete, your turn it off and at the end of the shift you download the day’s worth of video.”
Officers get trained to use the body camera during Scottsdale’s post-academy, which is the period following the Arizona State Police Academy and before they go to field training.
The Scottsdale Police Department bought the cameras to exhibit the service that the officers provide for the public, according to Safsten.
Blayne Bodley, a Scottsdale resident and local Circle K attendant, believes that everyone benefits from the accountability that body cameras necessitate.
“There are benefits that come with [body cameras],” he said. “You don’t have the one-sided story anymore that you see on Facebook. You have everything, from start to finish right there are on the body cam. It protects [police officers] and it protects us because they aren’t going to become more aggressive while they are being recorded.”
Coy Johnston, an ASU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice lecturer and former Mesa Police Department Officer, believes that body cameras illustrate the tough work of police officers and disallows the media to push their own narratives.
“I think the main advantage is relations and with media,” he said “Body cameras offer the truth and that is where a lot of [police’s] problems are.
Johnston said the technology officers something that he never had as a police officer and that it is progress.
“It goes back to the early ‘80s when I was a police officer,” he said. “Very few people then even tape recorded their interviews and that was something so obvious. Some of us were, and when we went into trial it was a piece of cake because we didn’t have to worry about convincing the jury.”
