The Failed Promise of Police Body Cameras

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. tavernes and this is the. [Music]. daily a decade ago police departments. across the country began requiring. officers to wear body cameras it was the. single biggest change to come out of the. police Reform movement a piece of. technology that promised accountability. in. policing today the Times magazine and.

the News organization propublica. investigate what happened with that. reform and why it has not lived up to. its. promise I spoke with prop publicas Eric. umansky it's Monday January. [Music]. 29th so Eric most of us have gotten. pretty used to the idea that police. officers wear body cameras on the job.

right it's it's part of the uniform at. this point essentially and it was one of. the big things to come out of the police. Reform movement over the last decade and. activist had a lot of Hope for these. things you are an investigative reporter. and you have been looking into body. cameras and the fate of body cameras as. a reform when did you start becoming. curious about them so was in early 2023. January actually there was a. particularly horrific police killing in.

Memphis it was a young man named Tyrie. Nicholls and police had beaten him to. death and there was footage of it and. the footage came out and I was reading. about it and there was this one sentence. in the story and the sentence in the. story said that the officers were. beating him with their body warn cameras. on and they knew that their cameras were. on and it just stopped me I thought how.

can it be that officers would beat. somebody to death knowing it was being. recorded right this camera was a device. supposedly to stop misconduct and here. was this misconduct the camera was. rolling and no one seemed to really care. yeah that was remarkable to me and it. was also a question of how was this big. reform this huge it was really the. biggest changing in policing I think. it's fair to say in a generation how did.

it play out across the country did the. promise of transparency and. accountability you know was it really. delivered okay so before we get to what. happened with that reform remind us how. body cameras first came into use in the. US how long have they been around so. body cams first became popular about a. decade ago in the United States and it. was a very specific moment and that was. the police killing in Ferguson Missouri. of a teenager named Michael Brown that.

killing there was no recording of it. there was enormous disputes about what. happened in the moments before he was. shot and the killing set off the first. Nationwide black lives matters protests. good morning chairman morning and in. response to that my name is Les mpen the. mother of Michael Brown Michael Brown's. own mother called for police to be. equipped with body worn cameras on.

August 9th there was no recorded account. of my son's last moments in. life I still do not have. closure or the solid truth of what. really happened that day please let. police want body cameras be a Voice of. Truth and transparency in Missouri. communities thank. you so then bodyw warn cameras began. spreading incredibly quickly around. around the country the justice.

department announced 20 million in. Grants to get body cams on Cops. Nationwide President Obama endorse them. and put Federal money toward them part. of the reason this time will be. different is because uh the president of. the United States uh is deeply invested. in making sure that this time is. made and it was really an idea that. appealed across the political aisle this. is going to strengthen the people of. South Carolina this is going to. strengthen law enforcement Nikki Haley. then the governor of South Carolina.

became the first governor in the country. to require officers to wear body warn. cameras and you know the notion behind. all of this was that you would have. footage that would do actually kind of a. whole variety of things one is that. there would be transparency so that. community members could see for. themselves what officers were doing and. were not. doing then you also have the. accountability if officers were engaged.

in misconduct that they would suffer. some consequences for it and then the. third thing was really the kind of great. hope which is that if officers knew they. were being recorded they wouldn't engage. in misconduct in the first place that. you know they wouldn't beat people or or. shoot people unnecessarily that was the. hope behind all of. it right and as you said despite all of. this promise there's this Gap Gathering. evidence that cameras are not actually.

delivering any real reform even after. they'd been adopted all over the country. as they had so Eric where did you start. to answer the question of what's going. wrong here so I decided to look at New. York City and there are a couple reasons. that I did that one the NYPD is the. world's largest police department and. what the. NYPD does other police departments. around the country follow so that's. incredibly important and then on top of.

that there was this really interesting. dynamic in New York which is that a. federal judge actually ordered the. NYPD to begin using cameras in response. to problematic policing and when did. police in the city actually start. wearing them like when was the policy. implemented and what happened when they. did so in. 2017 the then Mayor DeBlasio and the. then police chief gave press conference.

in which they said this is the first day. of the era of body warn cameras and that. means we are going on a pathway of. transparency and accountability we are. rebuilding trust between the community. and police and it is a new day for. accountability and transparency mark my. words this is going to make us safer and. so just a few months after that press. conference and all those promises the.

first killing by police officers in New. York City is captured on a body warn. camera and all those promises are put to. the. test so police got a call to check in on. a young man named Miguel Richards 31. years old Jamaican College exchange. student lived in the Bronx and his. landlord hadn't heard from him in a. while and so the police officers show up. and after 15 minutes they shot him to.

death God and a week later police decide. to disclose some of the. [Music]. footage and what is the footage they. release. show officers walk into this apartment. guys back up back up back the door find. him in the far corner of his bedroom.

with dark sunglasses on standing. completely rigid do you see me speak to. me are you seeing me right now I see you. not moving at all and Ricardo dude I see. that knife in your hand he's holding a. small knife next to his side it's not. worth it put the knife down and walk out. here with your hands in the end and they. tell him to drop the knife and he. doesn't do so this is not going to end.

well for you if you don't put that down. he doesn't respond at all he he's seems. to be basically catatonic put that knife. down you hear me put that knife on the. floor drop it and over the course of 15. minutes the officers get. increasingly concerned in part they. worried that he had a gun that they. couldn't see his other hand you. understand you were a second away from. getting shot if you don't tell what's in. your other hand let me see where the. other hand is and another officer comes.

with a taser I'll advise Central just. have a unit with a taser come over here. please but before the officer with a. taser can even use it he's got a knife. and a and a Gun there's a gun gun dude. drop it one of the other officers. decides to fire his gun want to take. yeah just go yeah just go he's might. never G just hit. him they fire 16 times 16 times yeah.

they fire at him 16. times get back get back you're right and. they kill him. wow and that's where the footage the. police released. [Music]. ends.

and what did people think once that was. made public once the footage was made. public so the police commissioner in an. accompanying internal message said. sometimes the use of deadly force is. inevitable and that the officers did the. right thing and as part of the message. he said you know it reflects that all. officers show tremendous restraint.

but some people noticed the police had. not actually released the full footage. what they had released was a compilation. from a few videos and it wasn't the full. recording of what. happened and so a public interest lawyer. soon after the shooting actually filed a. public records request for the full. footage the police department rejected. her request she kept pushing and went.

back and forth with the NYPD for well. over a year and then a judge finally. ordered the police department to hand. over the full. footage what did it. show holy. [Music]. the full footage showed officers. walking over his limp body he's.

C you're not hit are you anybody. hit one of them. said he's still alive he's still. alive none of the officers who were. initially there gave him any medical Aid. got start working on him and Richard's. lay bleeding on the ground for more than. 3. minutes where is there's a gun somewhere. we'll find it's just he's CU just and.

one thing the video shows is officers. looking for a. gun but there was no real gun the. officers later found a toy gun in his. room had something in his hand like a. laser point point I don't know if it was. a gun or not and actually help had been. seconds away other specially trained. officers were at the scene and were. actually walking up the stairs when the.

officers decided to shoot where there. was no urgency to do. so so this new footage shows a much more. complicated picture and one that calls. into question the behavior that the. police commissioner previously said was. okay yeah the the footage and the. internal investigation together show a. really different uh picture in fact. actually the nypd's investigators.

concluded that Richards had not been a. danger to anyone that he was quote. unquote. contained and the investigators had. recommended punishing the officers for. their conduct and then the police. commissioner had decided to just simply. ignore. them so Eric this seems to kind of fly. in the face of what people working on. police reform had hoped right that the.

footage from these cameras would be a. clear window into what happened and in. this shooting the initial footage did. not tell us the full story what do you. make of this so I think fundamentally. what this tells us is that having a. little black box on officers chest. recording everything they do isn't. enough really you need to address a more. fundamental issue of who controls the. footage that's being recorded recorded. on those.

[Music]. cameras we'll be right. [Music]. back so Eric we just talked about the. first killing caught on camera in New. York City and you told me that the. footage the police released really. didn't show the whole story and the real.

lesson from that is it's about who. controls the footage so in the case of. New York who does actually control the. footage I mean looks like it's the. police right right it's very much the. police and the reason for that is not. that somebody made a proactive choice to. give the police control it's that really. the police in New York have been left by. and large to police themselves and so. when bodyw warn cameras came along it. really just sort of as a default made.

sense for the police to have the power. to decide what is recorded what is done. with those recordings what is released. and when and what's the argument for the. police department having complete. discretion over who sees the footage I. mean how does the police department in. New York talk about this how do they. justify that so what the police. department typically says is that there. are. privacy concerns and you know there are.

legitimate privacy concerns for example. if there's footage of somebody in their. home and perhaps they're unclothed or. there's a minor there they also. typically site there being an ongoing. investigation and you know one of the. issues is well that ongoing. investigation can take well over a year. ongoing investigation in other words we.

really can't tell you anything because. it might actually affect the outcome of. this legal process that we have underway. yeah so you know I've spoken to a number. of prosecutors and people in law. enforcement about that specific issue. and there are legitimate reasons to hold. off for some period of time you know. because of the logic if you have. somebody who's involved in an incident. you perhaps don't want them seeing. footage so that they can figure out what. you know right but that's not a reason.

to withhold something for a year what. people told me is that should be. something that could be dealt with in a. few days in a small period of time and. that particularly in something like. police shootings it has to be balanced. against the significant public interest. in disclosure in you know building trust. between police and the community okay so. the police officers have to use these.

body cameras but the police department. doesn't have to share what these cameras. record is there no check on the police. department so there is a check it's a. civilian oversight board whose job it is. to investigate allegations of misconduct. by the police the problem is that it is. deeply powerless just to take an example. it has no ability to access footage from. bodyw warn cameras themselves a former.

head of this oversight board described. it to me as a mother mayi process they. need to go to the NYPD and say please. can we have this footage and you know. sometimes the NYPD gives it and. sometimes they don't so this seems like. a pretty big thing to leave out if. you're trying to do a police reform it. is and frankly what I've found is that. the. NYPD has use that power to Monkey Wrench.

the process just to give you a couple of. examples of that the NYPD would. frequently tell the oversight board that. it didn't have footage of one incident. or another only for the oversight board. to later discover that video existed wow. and then the. NYPD also would withhold footage of. shootings and other serious incidents. for often well over a year and that.

didn't just sort of slow down the. investigative process it actually cut it. off because in New York there's a rule. that discipline cases must happen within. 18 months of an incident and so when the. NYPD withholds footage it's not simply a. transparency issue what it means is that. the civilian oversight board effectively. can't investigate and do it its job it. has no ability to even recommend.

punishment against officers and what. that means is that even though there are. cameras uh there can be no. accountability which was the whole point. of cameras to begin with okay so cameras. were meant really as a defense against. police misconduct but police in New York. don't want that misconduct to have to be. scrutinized or have one of their own. punished and because the police are the. only ones with their hands on the button.

so to speak it turns out to be kind of a. useless tool right these cameras at. least in New York when you were doing. your reporting did you find any place. doing it differently any place where it. actually was working so yeah I spent. some time looking for exactly that and I. ended up in a place that that I have to. say surprised me and that's Chicago. really I mean I don't generally think of. Chicago as like a parag of policing. Chicago is certainly not a paragon of.

policing you're absolutely right about. that it has a long and frankly brutal. record of policing over many decades but. Chicago went through some enormous. changes about actually a decade ago and. that's after police shot and killed a. 17-year-old named lacoin McDonald in. 2014 so at the time there was a shooting. every five days in Chicago of primarily.

black male residents by police and the. shooting of lacoin McDonald was. initially treated as another one of. those it's not a big story then a. whistleblower tipped off a local. Advocate and journalist that there was. dash cam footage of what happened and. that what it showed was very different. than the initial accounts the local. Advocate said that what it showed was.

that lacoin McDonald had been shot 16. times it was essentially an execution. the city had fought for nearly a year. against that footage becoming public and. when the footage came out as a result of. a judge's. order the consequences were. cataclysmic the mayor of Chicago has. fired the city's Top Cop the police. chief was forced out his departure comes.

a week after one of his police officers. was charged with the murder of a black. teenager there was a federal. investigation accusations of a coverup. have followed the mayor since the video. was. [Music]. released and the mayor at the time. decided not to run. again so the The Fallout both from The. Killing but also from the cover up led. to intense pressure on the city for.

major reform and as a result ultimately. Chicago was forced to reimagine police. oversight and what changes emerged after. the Scandal what happened what did. Chicago do so just to take some examples. they dissolved their ineffectual. civilian oversight agency and they.

created a a new one and as part of this. process remember you know the footage. had been so critical in lacoin. McDonald's case and so they put. disclosure of footage at the center of. all of this the city committed to. disclosing footage from shootings on a. regular basis they said they would do so. within two months of a shooting but just. as critically what they said was it. would wouldn't be the police who is. ultimately in control of the footage and.

of what and when that is released what. they did was the new civilian oversight. agency had the ability to get footage. itself it didn't have to you know send a. very nice letter to the Chicago Police. Department asking for footage it was not. mother mayi of New York right they. didn't have to do that they literally. have logins to the system wow so that. they can pull footage themselves and.

then there's this second key component. of it which is that it's that agency and. not the police department that has the. authority to disclose the footage. publicly and that is what they have done. wow so a very different scenario from. New York and going back to the earlier. part of our conversation this would seem. to be a real way to make cameras the. tool that activist just imagine that. they would be right by spreading around.

the power to control the footage to. other things like these civilian boards. taking the Monopoly away from the police. department so Eric what is the effect of. this reform on the numbers of police. shootings in the city has there been a. change in the numbers since it was. implemented so in Chicago in the days. since laquan McDonald and all of these. changes have been implemented and you. know I should say that there were a. enormous number of changes in Chicago. wasn't simply cameras but there have.

been real significant measurable. critical changes so police shootings. have dropped by roughly half you know. before I had said that there was one. every five days last year there were 22. in all of last year wow that's a big. drop yeah it's a significant drop and. it's not the only drop use of force has. also gone down by by officers by about a.

third and so you see real significant. changes in Chicago and you know lots of. folks I spoke with there emphasized. things are not perfect there you still. have officers frequently not turning. their cameras on when they should and. you still have the police department. trying to create an narrative for. example around shootings but it's much. more difficult for them now that there's.

a third party that's releasing all the. footage so Eric we have two cities that. look pretty different in terms of their. approach to reform right so across the. United States are there more New Yorks. or more Chicago which is typical so New. York is typical you know we actually. found that even in police shootings the. most extreme. use of force that police can engage in.

police are more often than not not. releasing footage so you really have. lots of places looking like New York you. know I've been reporting on this issue. for basically a year and throughout it. I've been asking um can you tell me of. an instance where the police are not in. charge of disclosing footage and. throughout it all I could only find one. and. that's Chicago so how applicable is.

Chicago to the rest of the country Eric. I mean you said it's singular now but. could it be some sort of model in the. future yeah so I think it could be I. mean there's no natural law that says. there must be weak civilian oversight of. policing in the United. States what it requires frankly is. political will on behalf of Mayor and. other local leaders to say that this way.

isn't working and that there is actually. another way to do things what happened. in Chicago you know it took a horrific. Scandal to force change but there's no. reason there has to be a horrific. scandal in every city I mean it's we as. taxpayers who are paying for this. technology and it can be useful it can. be put to good use and it can make a. [Music]. difference. Eric thank you thank.

you we'll be right. back here's what else you should know. today on Sunday three American soldiers. were killed and 255 were injured in a.

drone strike in Jordan President Biden. said in a statement that an iran-backed. militia had carried out the strike which. took place on an army base near the. Syrian border the deaths will put more. pressure on Biden to respond more. forcefully in the Middle East as the war. in Gaza threatens to. spread and the United nations's highest. Court ruled that Israel must take action. to prevent acts of genocide by it forces. in the Gaza Strip however the court.

stopped short of calling on Jerusalem to. stop its military campaign the ruling. which was preliminary had elements that. each side could embrace the court. ultimately allowed the genocide case to. proceed which will likely keep Israel. under International scrutiny for years. to. come finally former president Donald. Trump was ordered by a Manhattan jury to. pay $83 million to the writer egene. Carol for defaming her in 2019 after she.

accused him of a decades old rape it was. Trump's second trial in Carol's case she. was awarded $5 million last spring after. a jury found Trump had sexually abused. her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. in the mid. 1990s Carol's lawyers had argued that a. large award was necessary to stop Trump. from continuing to attack. her. today's episode was produced by Eric.

krupky Olivia Nat and Stella tan it was. edited by Brendan clink andberg with. help from Michael benois fact checked by. Susan Lee contains original music by. Marian Lozano Dan Powell Rowan Nimo. Diane Wong and Sophia landman and was. engineered by Alyssa Moxley with help. from Chris Wood our theme music is by. Jim runberg and Ben Lanser of wonderly. [Music].

[Music]. that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina. Tavern see you. tomorrow.