Post-Ferguson, Del. police weigh body cameras

Top Delaware State Police officials are considering whether to equip state troopers with body cameras, as civil rights groups call for the new technology after witnesses offered conflicting accounts of the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat, says he is open to deploying body cameras on police. For about a decade, state troopers have used in-car cameras with microphones. Body cameras, however, are not now broadly used by Delaware agencies.

A spokesman said the governor has a meeting planned with Delaware State Police Colonel Nathaniel McQueen, Jr., and Richard Smith, the president of the Delaware NAACP, who has led early calls to equip Delaware law enforcers with body cameras.

Smiths says cameras affixed to an officer's chest or shoulder would provide accountability for police, while protecting law enforcement from lawsuits.

"It protects both parties, police and the citizens," Smith said. "The community really wants cameras on police. If the officer in Ferguson had a camera on him, even when he went after Mr. Brown, it would have been a different outcome."

Jonathon Dworkin, Markell's spokesman, replied by email: "The Governor is open to the idea of putting body cameras on police officers, and the Delaware State Police is already exploring their use and working to answer important questions about cost, data storage and access."

Sgt. Paul Shavack, a Delaware State Police spokesman, said the law enforcement agency is "in the process of researching the logistics and feasibility of deployment."

Dworkin said that includes considering the quality and cost of available cameras, exploring issues around the use of cameras in homes, and understanding how much value body cameras would add beyond the in-car cameras and microphones already used by troopers.

Officer Darren Wilson was not charged in the killing of Brown, who was unarmed. Witnesses who testified before the St. Louis County grand jury investigating the shooting gave varying, often conflicting, accounts of the incident.

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In Delaware's largest city, Wilmington Police already have some body cameras but they remain in storage. A spokeswoman would not say how many.

"There are a number of steps that have to be done prior to placing them in service," said Sgt. Andrea Janvier. "At this point therefore, we are not going to comment on an ongoing implementation of policy."

Janvier would not say how much Wilmington paid for the cameras it so far is not using.

At the Dover Police Department, each patrol vehicle is equipped with a camera. And officers wear microphones.

But none of Dover's 93 officers wears a body camera.

"The Dover Police Department continually looks at innovative ways to improve the services we provide and ways to protect our officers and the public, including the use of body cameras and other technological advances," department spokesman Cpl. Mark Hoffman said by email.

Fred Calhoun, president of the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police, which represents about 2,500 law enforcement officers in Delaware, agrees with civil rights advocates that there is some merit in body cameras.

"I don't think any officer is opposed having a camera video them while they're doing their job," Calhoun said. "It probably could have prevented a lot of issues over the years. A perfect example is what happened in Ferguson. That would not be in question if there was a camera."

There are some outstanding privacy questions for officers, Calhoun said. He said law enforcement officers should not be subject to surveillance when they're sitting in their car, or getting lunch and not responding to an incident.

National groups, some with a record of opposing surveillance, have called for cameras on police to provide additional accountability. The American Civil Liberties Union came out in support of more cameras in a policy paper last year.

"Although we generally take a dim view of the proliferation of surveillance cameras in American life, police on-body cameras are different because of their potential to serve as a check against the abuse of power by police officers," wrote Jay Stanley, an ACLU senior policy analyst.

In its statement after the grand jury voted to not charge Wilson, Michael Brown's family called for body cameras on police, saying the cameras would help prevent future violence.

"We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen. Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera," the statement read.

In Delaware and elsewhere, the call for cameras on police is rooted in a certain amount of distrust, especially among members of black communities and the police. Smith, head of the Delaware NAACP, talked about that relationship in an interview last week.

"I want to make sure we get to the root of the problem we have in the United States now – police versus the black community," Smith said. "The KKK gave up their sheets and they've become police. A lot of them. I believe that there are racial overtones with most policemen in the United States."

Contact Jonathan Starkey at (302) 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or at jstarkey@delawareonline.com.