New arena for body cameras: Iowa schools

Mackenzie Ryan | The Des Moines Register

As police departments across the country adopt body cameras, an Iowa school district is following suit by outfitting administrators with clip-on video cameras.

Burlington Community School District in southeastern Iowa is taking the unusual step of recording parent and student interactions with principals and assistant principals — a move district officials say will protect both sides.

"It's personal accountability," Superintendent Pat Coen told The Des Moines Register. "Did we treat this person with dignity, honor and respect? And if we didn't, why didn't we?"

The 4,300-student district along the eastern Iowa border is thought to be among the first in the nation to outfit administrators at each of the district's eight school buildings with a body camera.

All principals and associate principals in the district will be issued a camera, Coen told USA TODAY Network in an email. That will mean thirteen body cameras total in the district.

"I have not received any negative feedback from parents or students. However, I'm sure the time will come when we do," Coen wrote.

But at least one safety expert calls the move troubling. Ken Trump of the National School Safety and Security Services called it a "substantial overreach" by school leaders, one he wouldn't want to see replicated in other districts.

"They're not in the dark alleys of local streets on the midnight shift," said Trump, president of the Ohio-based consulting firm. "They're in school with children."

Rising popularity

The national attention on police officer misconduct has helped buoy the trend toward body cameras, in part because they are seen as a way to help ensure professional conduct.

Across the country this year, state legislators introduced bills governing body cameras, including a failed bill in the Iowa Statehouse.

Some Iowa police departments, including those in Des Moines, Urbandale and Waukee, are moving forward with outfitting officers.

And schools are taking note. Districts such as Houston Independent in Texas have announced that school police officers will wear body cameras this fall.

It's unclear how many school leaders are also considering body cameras. Trump said he had never heard of school administrators being outfitted with them.

"I have never even heard anyone say it in jest," he said. "I could not even believe we were having this conversation."

Army lessons

Coen said wearing cameras sets high expectations for conduct, which he saw firsthand while serving in the Iowa Army National Guard in Afghanistan. Soldiers' helmets were outfitted with cameras.

"You always knew that if you messed up, the whole world got to see you mess up," said Coen, a retired colonel.

However, videos can be reviewed and used to improve.

"It wasn't so much about catching the other guy, but collecting how we did on the operation and how can we do it better," he said.

Many schools already have installed building and school bus cameras.

It's been at least 10 years since they were installed in Burlington school hallways, stairwells and lunch rooms.

In addition, cameras on school buses record student passengers and the driver, as well as other drivers on the road.

Privacy concerns

But Trump said body cameras serve a different kind of purpose. While building cameras record movement of people, which can be helpful to school security, body cameras record individual conversations — raising legal questions and privacy concerns.

Plus, Trump said that body cameras could prevent administrators and school resource officers from building trust with students, which is a vital part of keeping students safe. Relationships can pave the way for a teen to admit there is abuse at home, or to voice concern if a friend brought a weapon to school.

"You have to ask, really, why are we doing this?" Trump said. "And is it going to create more problems than it solves?"

Recorded proof

Yet video footage of student and administrator interactions proved vital in Burlington, Iowa, this past school year, after Principal Mark Yeoman of Aldo Leopold Middle School said he was wrongly accused of kicking a student.

A parent had complained about the Burlington school leader's behavior after he used de-escalation strategies to try to calm down a student. The incident was caught on a school camera, which Yeoman said he reviewed and later showed to the parent.

"They didn't have to take my word over the child's word. They were able to see it," Yeomen said.

After talking with the school's resource officer about how patrol car cameras — and now, body cameras — can help protect officers and cut down on the number of complaints, Yeoman approached Coen about making a purchase.

The district spent about $1,100 to purchase 13 cameras at about $85 each. They record with a date and time stamp, can be clipped onto ties or lanyards, and can be turned on and off as needed.

How they'll be used

Yeoman foresees using the cameras while monitoring student movement in hallways and in the lunchroom, as well as during conversations with students and parents.

At the end of each day, principals will be responsible for uploading the recordings and reviewing and distributing the videos when questions arise, said William Brackett, Burlington's supervisor of technology.

The district also is developing policy related to their use, and updating a notification in the school handbook, which already alerts students, parents and staff that cameras are used in buildings and school buses.

Coen said principals, like school resource officers, will take a balanced approach to how to treat student behavior that's caught on tape.

Major offenses can't be ignored. But Coen said small infractions may be treated as such.

In a hypothetical example, he said throwing a paper wad can be considered disorderly conduct — but does it deserve to be prosecuted as such?

"We need to make sure we don't make something bigger than it is," Coen said. "We've got to have strong school administrators who are all on the side of kids."

Contributing: Greg Toppo and Lori Grisham, USA TODAY Network