Body cameras on Ridgefield police? Not this year.
“There’s a lot more work that has to be done,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said Tuesday, Jan. 19, after meeting with police Chief John Roche.
“According to Chief Roche, there’s more research into ongoing costs that need to be identified with regard to police body cameras at this time. As a result, it will not be in this year’s budget request.”
Roche raised the idea of body cameras for Ridgefield police officers at a selectmen’s meeting just about a year ago, and said he wanted to look into the idea.
He said this week that more time would be needed to study it.
“At this point, I’m not putting them in our budget. I’m holding off,” Roche said.
There are a lot of costs, and they are beyond buying the equipment.
“The cameras cost, obviously. There’s training involved. You develop your policies,” Roche said. “But the big cost is the back end.
“We’re going to need to maintain the records of these video files for about a four-year period.”
Roche said he became convinced he needed to study that concept more after a policy on body-worn cameras was issued in November by the state agency that regulates police departments.
“The state has come out with this protocol. If you have cameras you must abide by the protocol,” he said. “I have to examine what they’re saying.”
Roche pointed to a nine-page policy issued in November by the State of Connecticut Police Officers Standards Training Council, part of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
The “storage and retention” aspect of the document was what had Chief Roche most concerned, and determined to get a complete understanding of the implications — and costs — before launching a body camera initiative.
The policy reads, in part: “All digital multimedia video files shall be securely stored in accordance with state record retention laws and department policy.
“Digital multimedia video files not reproduced for evidentiary purposes or otherwise required to be preserved in accordance with this policy shall be maintained for a period of a minimum of ninety days.
“Digital multimedia video files shall be preserved while a case remains open and under investigation, or while criminal or civil proceedings are ongoing or reasonably anticipated, or in accordance with the State Records Retention schedule, whichever is greater.
“All other digital multimedia video files reproduced for evidentiary purposes or otherwise caused to be preserved shall be maintained for a minimum of four (4) years.
“All other digital multimedia video files shall be preserved in accordance with any specific request by representatives of the division of Criminal Justice, Municipal Attorney, Officer of the Attorney General, retained counsel and other authorized claims representatives in the course of their official duties.
“Digital multimedia video files shall be preserved in response to oral, electronic or written preservation requests from any member of the public where such requests indicate that litigation may reasonably be anticipated. …”
There’s enough there to give the chief pause.
“I’m going to study it little bit more,” he said.
“Instead of deploying them out, let’s see what the law is going to require of us.”
He said some police departments had backed off from using cameras.
“There were two police agencies in the state that had deployed the cameras, and they pulled them back, because they saw the costs of maintaining the cameras was going to be prohibitive.
Roche also recalled the mixed response he got from the selectmen when he first mentioned the camera idea a year ago
“When I went before the Board of Selectmen they were saying, Is it really needed in Ridgefield? We’re not New York City, we’re not Chicago.”
He agreed, to a point.
“We’re more of a close-knit community,” Roche said. “We have good relations.”
Still, body cameras are an idea that many departments are considering — and they could be beneficial to officers as well as the public.
“Everybody’s saying law enforcement should carry cameras. Someday it might be mandated. Generally there’s a lot of people looking at it, to ensure the protection of the public and the protection of the officer,” Roche said.
Would the selectmen support the idea of police body cameras?
“I don’t know,” Marconi said. “I thought everyone would have supported Tasers, but that definitely wasn’t the case.”
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