University Police implement body camera program this month

Officer Daniels with the UMPD wears the new VieVu body cameras as a part of a new initiative.

University Police implemented a body camera program in an effort to increase the transparency of their police-citizen interactions.

The program, which launched about two weeks ago, requires on-duty patrol officers to wear a camera attached to the center of their lower chest and record everyday interactions with citizens.

During a wave of protests held last semester in response to the death of Michael Brown, some student groups released a set of demands that included requiring University Police to wear body cameras.

University Police Chief David Mitchell said the department began seriously considering instituting the program about 14 months ago, well before the protests spawned conversation about body cameras.

“We’re very fortunate to be a police department that is pretty advanced in the use of technology to keep us safe,” he said. “When I saw the body camera opportunity [become] available a while back, I started looking at it thinking, ‘This is a great opportunity.’”

University Police received funding for 39 cameras through the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention. The cameras were purchased through the company VieVu at a cost of about $1,000 per camera, Mitchell said.

University Police also purchased servers to store the footage because VieVu, unlike other body camera vendors such as TASER, does not save the footage on cloud storage units.

“We feel confident that when we are engaged in protecting and serving our communities that the recordings we have are maintained as securely as they can be,” Mitchell said. “They are not subject to an electronic intercept or intrusion.”

Mitchell said they plan to store the recordings for about 60 days, and supervisors within University Police will randomly and periodically check footage in order to monitor officers’ performance. The footage will not be made available to the general public or media, Mitchell said.

Freshman Julian Ivey participated in the protests last semester and said although he approves of the department following through with its promise to institute the program, he feels it’s important for the public to have access to the footage.

“It’s not that I don’t trust Chief Mitchell or anyone in the police department, but it’s rather about the principle,” the government and politics major said. “We would like to know, and we would like to be a part of the process.”

Mitchell said officers underwent training on how to operate the cameras and attended briefings on wiretapping regulations before the program was implemented.

Under state law, police are allowed to record a person without permission in the event of a traffic stop but must disclose they are doing so; however, a person can request they not be recorded in instances that are not traffic stops, and officers must comply if the incident isn’t related to an arrest or search, though the request must be caught on camera.

“Obviously we are not allowed to covertly record people because then that violates the two-party consent [regulation],” University Police Maj. Kenneth Calvert said. “There are very strict guidelines that are covered in our policy and procedure manual, which … was all reviewed by the university general counsel.”

Calvert said there are several exceptions, in addition to traffic stops, in which two-party consent is not required. These include crimes such as murder, kidnapping and rape, Calvert said.

Officers are not permitted to record where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as dorms, but Mitchell said this is not where problems typically arise.

“We have issues in the field — call for service, traffic stop, making arrests, that kind of stuff,” he said. “That’s where we have ‘What did the police do?’ questions.”

Sophomore economics major Milo King said requiring officers to use body cameras will help protect individual’s rights, but it is not necessarily the solution to the problem of police’s use of excessive force.

“Even if you have something recorded on camera, there can be a dispute if force used was excessive,” he said.

Though senior Jasmine Jones said body cameras may help improve University Police practices, she said she doesn’t know whether the program was necessary.

“I do not think College Park’s police force was abusing their powers in a way that would necessitate body cameras,” the government and politics major said.