Denver police on Wednesday said they hope to equip 800 officers, including all patrol and traffic officers, with body cameras in 2015.
The cameras, which will record audio and video, not only will protect people who make legitimate complaints, authorities say, but the technology also should protect police from false allegations of excessive force.
“The body camera will clear up those moments of conflict,” Chief Robert White said. “We’re very comfortable that we are going in the right direction.”
The equipment will cost about $1.5 million, White said.
The City Council still must approve the expense.
“I’m hoping financially we can afford them,” White said. “Technology is such that they are affordable. It’s achievable.”
Officers will wear the tiny cameras on their glasses or lapel. According to new protocols, officers must turn them on every instance they make contact with citizens. Failure to do so could lead to discipline, White said.
After a call, officers will download the footage, which will be stored “in the cloud,” White said.
“Citizens should know officers are being held accountable,” White said. “The only officers who would have a problem with body cameras are bad officers.”
Most Denver police officers are not bad, he added.
He said the cameras have been received favorably by citizens and officers.
Already, the cameras have proved several times that excessive-force complaints were false allegations, White said. In a few cases, people making the allegations have withdrawn complaints when they learned their encounters with police were recorded, White said.
In early 2013, White and his staff began evaluating the use of body cameras by Denver patrol officers.
Officers in District 6, which encompasses Lower Downtown, have been using body cameras as part of a study for two months with great success, White said. The six-month pilot program is intended to study the feasibility of the body cameras.
The cameras were used in District 6 because it has the highest volume of activity in the city, White said. Police come into contact with homeless people and many intoxicated people leaving LoDo bars, he said.
Taser International and researchers from the University of Cambridge are administering the independent study, trying to determine the effectiveness of the cameras. Taser gave the department 125 cameras for the study.
Denver was chosen to be the first major metropolitan city to be studied for the use of body cameras, said District 6 Cmdr. Magen Dodge.
A pilot project in Rialto, Calif., which has about 250 police officers, triggered a double-digit reduction in excessive-force complaints.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kmitchelldp
