Washington police test new body, cruiser cameras

By CAMILA ORTI

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    VANCOUVER, Washington (KPTV) — The Vancouver Police Department is adding body and cruiser cameras to its tool kit, launching a trial Wednesday to let officers try out the new technology.

The 60-day trial outfits ten police officers and six vehicles with cameras and sensors that trigger the recording process.

Bicycle patrol officer Nicole Vigil said she volunteered for the pilot program because she thinks the product is important to the community.

“We know it was up-and-coming and I like the idea of the transparency around it,” Vigil told FOX 12.

Assistant Police Chief Troy Price said the process of researching camera systems started in early 2019. He says the pandemic slowed things down, but the department was eventually able to whittle the vendor options to the one the department is currently testing.

“It was clear to us several years ago that cameras were just going to be the standard of the industry,” Price said.

The city council approved $3 million in funding for the cameras, and Vancouver police plan on receiving another $1.5 million in federal funding to support the program. Price says the pilot program is on the vendor’s dime.

“These programs are not as simple as just strapping on a camera and sending people out into the street,” Price said during a news conference, adding that the biggest challenge is adding enough staffing to prepare for the additional work sifting through the data and records requests.

Vigil can attest to the subtle complications, saying officers wearing body cameras will have to pay attention to even subconscious behaviors.

“My big thing is I stand like this and I place my finger in front of the camera the whole time, so it’s kind of trial and error and trying to work through the little habits that we have,” Vigil said.

The body cameras look a lot like cell phones and slide into place inside the officers’ vests. Each outfitted cruiser has two cameras– one in the front pointing forward through the windshield, and the other camera in the backseat.

There are dozens of ways the body and cruiser cameras can be activated to record, Price said, explaining that there’s a 15-second loop that is always recording over itself so that when an officer triggers the camera, the 15 seconds leading up to the event will be a part of the recorded footage.

Officers have media controllers that they can wear like a watch or attach to their vests to turn the cameras on and off, but the cameras are automatically triggered under certain circumstances, too. Sensors on the car doors and on the officers’ gun holsters will start the cameras when lights and sirens are activated, when an officer steps out of their car, or when a firearm is drawn.

“I don’t have to think of hitting the button while fumbling with the firearm, so that’s a benefit for sure,” Vigil said.

If a priority call comes through- like an armed robbery- Price says the cameras can also start recording on all responding units when they’re about a half mile away from the address.

“The goal is ultimately to give as much transparency into what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, and make sure it meets our community’s expectations of us,” Price said.

At the end of the pilot program, the department will either go forward with the vendor it is testing with or launch another pilot program with another vendor. Price hopes that a contract gets signed shortly after the trial period is over, and that the cameras can be implemented department-wide by next summer.

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