The City of Springfield is investing $165,000 in body cameras for the Springfield Police Department.
The move is meant to bring a new form of accountability to the police and the community.
The level of trust among the police and communities across the United States has dwindled in light of the deaths of African-American youth like Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown and Laquan McDonald by police. In response, Illinois lawmakers adopted rules for body cameras last year.
In 2015, President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Report called for a standardization of policies across the United States. The initiative aimed at building trust and legitimacy, focusing on policy and oversight, utilizing technology and social media, analyzing community policing and crime reduction, implementing training and education, and officer wellness and safety.
Body cameras may be a solution to end the contentious claims of police brutality in Illinois.
On Feb. 16, the Springfield City Council approved the Springfield Police Department’s budget for Fiscal Year 2017, which included $165,000 to cover the cost of cameras and storage, according to deputy chief Dyle Stokes in the administrative services division of the Springfield Police Department.
As of March 1, the budget for body cameras gives the Springfield Police Department the ability to select a camera model as well as find an external company to provide storage for the footage.
The department conducted a five-week field test using eyeglass and body cameras in November 2015 to evaluate the cameras’ video quality, durability, functionality and storage.
“During the initial testing of camera models in the fall of 2014, these particular cameras were selected because they met the minimum requirements of Senate Bill 1304,” Stokes said, referring to the body camera law passed in August 2015.
At this point, no particular camera model has been selected, and there is still uncertainty about how successful implementing the body cameras will be.
Deputy chief Dan Mounce of the department’s criminal investigations division believes that the use of body cameras is positive, but he says they won’t help with every issue.
“As we have seen nationally, during some incidents, the use of force by officers was needed and during others, there was an excessive use of force,” Mounce said. “Regardless of anyone’s opinion, a body-worn camera won’t capture everything.”
Other issues that contribute to the uncertainty include the cost of storage and an expectation that the department will become inundated with requests for video under the state Freedom of Information Act.
Despite that uncertainty, Mounce believes that the implementation of the body cameras will benefit the department in some ways.
“The benefit of the cameras is that there will be transparency on a daily basis and has potential to exonerate an officer who acted properly,” Mounce said.
In a phone interview with Illinois Times, state Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, who cosponsored the state law on body cameras, said police departments’ use of body cameras “takes uncertainty out of the equation.”
“I think that this is a good move for law enforcement in Illinois and across the country,” said Drury, who is also a former federal prosecutor. “It will bring positive development and transparency for law enforcement and the community.”
The Sangamon County Sheriff’s office believes that having cameras is a good thing, says chief deputy Joe Roesch. However, he says there are too many unknown factors at the moment for the sheriff’s office to create any such program. Some of those unknown factors are privacy issues, having to hire additional people, and having to purchase separate software to “scrub” or redact the footage, Roesch says. That’s in addition to the expense.
“At this moment we don’t want to commit to implementing the body cameras without knowing the total costs,” he said. “We always want to be conservative about taxpayer dollars.”
Contact Brittany Hilderbrand at intern@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2016.
