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We urge officers to welcome use of body camera

We received the good news last week that both the Youngstown Police Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol are finalizing plans in the purchase of officer body cameras.

We are pleased to see these new programs intended to help enhance transparency in law enforcement take shape.

City police will use about $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds to purchase 100 cameras and 150 Taser weapons. The federal relief funding also will cover the cost of video storage and their needed computer network equipment.

Youngstown’s five-year contract is with Axon, a Scottsdale, Ariz., company and includes 100 new body cameras in both the third and fifth years of the contract with the city retaining the old cameras.

City officials have talked for several months about buying body cameras for its police officers, and it all came to fruition with Wednesday’s vote of city council.

In an unrelated move, the Ohio State Highway Patrol will pay $15 million over five years from its budget to arm all 1,500 troopers statewide with body cameras by next May. The new cameras also should strengthen police-community relations as many in communities large and small have appealed for body camera use for years now. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has supported the measure.

The $15 million also will fund distribution and installation of 1,221 in-car systems that will synchronize the new cameras with existing dashboard and rear-seat cameras in use by Ohio troopers for 20 years.

It seems that our elected officials, administrators and law enforcement leadership have welcomed the idea of body camera usage. Now, we can only hope that local police and highway patrol officers also welcome and embrace use of the cameras, treating them not with disdain or fear, but with eagerness to create more transparency for the public.

Frankly, it’s no secret that we are in an era where virtually anything can be caught on camera at any time. For that reason (and many others), we believe body camera usage is even increasingly more critical.

Videos captured in police-involved shootings or when use of force and aggression is displayed against officers have played pivotal roles in criminal and administrative investigations, as well as training scenarios. They should be welcomed as an effective tool to expose areas of concern in police work.

In announcing Ohio’s plan last week, DeWine described the cameras as “like an impartial, first-person account of every interaction with the public, every arrest and every traffic stop.”

We agree.

Body and cruiser cameras allow police agencies the ability to record their own unalterable evidence of often tumultuous scenarios as they unfold. Yes, potential exists to be overly scrutinized, but the recordings also provide a response if and when an officer has done his or her job correctly.

Indeed, that really is all anyone should demand and expect from the use of these cameras.

Under Youngstown’s relatively new police chief, investigation and planning for the camera program has moved along swiftly over the last 11 months.

Policies for recording, storage and public release have been spelled out. From where we sit, those types of policies always should be simple. Video footage gathered via police body or cruiser cameras should be guided by existing Ohio law. It should be considered as open and transparent as the letter of the law allows. We always would discourage police departments from developing overly restrictive policies for access to the recordings, and remind them that no local policy would trump the Ohio Revised Code.

In making the announcement regarding the state trooper body camera program, Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Richard Fambro said transparency is nothing new to his agency.

“The protection of our constitutional and civil rights of people we serve is of paramount concern to the division,” he said.

Bravo! We are excited to see these police agencies embrace the use of body cameras as a tool to improve performance of their duties and increase transparency to the public that they serve.

Now we are hopeful that more departments that, so far, have not adopted use of the cameras will move forward with a plan.

As of April, seven states — Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Carolina — mandated body cameras for all law enforcement officers statewide, The Associated Press reports.

Achieving a similar goal for Ohio and all the police agencies within it would serve our officers and our public well.

editorial@vindy.com

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