The larger problem behind Scottsdale's police body camera audit Opinion: The good news is Scottsdale is taking its body-cam program seriously. But the city's audit points to a problem that threatens departments everywhere.

Joanna Allhands | The Republic | azcentral.com

I’m heartened by Scottsdale’s audit that found officers aren’t appropriately handling some of the body-camera footage they are recording.

The audit revealed that former employees still have access to the website where footage is uploaded. And that some inconsequential videos – like those of officers taking a bathroom break – have been deleted without the proper documentation to explain why.

Other videos aren’t being tagged properly, which makes them harder to find when the public, prosecutors or officers request them. And some supervisors aren’t following the policy to review at least four randomly chosen videos a month.

They're fixing it before something went wrong

Don’t get me wrong: Those gaps reveal a troubling breakdown in how the department is handling what ultimately could become key evidence in a court proceeding.

But I’m heartened that the city reviewed its practices – and will implement changes – before something went terribly wrong.

It tells me those cameras aren’t just on officers for show. The city recognizes the implications of this new technology and takes seriously the thousands of hours of video its officers are creating each month.

It also reveals a larger problem.

Larger problem: Most footage isn't reviewed

New Study Shows 'Nationwide Failure' Of Police Body Camera Policies Body cameras are usuallt seen as a solution to the problem of police brutality. However, a new survey of 75 police departments across the United States, found that the policies governing them have failed to foster transparency, protect privacy, or defend civil rights. A yearly report released by Upturn and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, found numerous key weaknesses this week in body cam policies across the country. 51 percent of the surveyed police departments made no changes to their body cam policies since last year.

Yes, fixing problems with access and tagging is critical to ensure footage is kept secure and categorized in a meaningful way so it can be found months or even years later. But that’s the easy part.

The larger problem is that most of this footage is never reviewed after it’s inputted – and an opportunity is lost to identify problems with training, breakdowns in tactics and even potential use of force issues.

That won’t change, even with policies requiring supervisors to randomly review a few videos each month. There simply is too much footage for human eyes to review. Questionable videos could fall through the cracks. And – at least for now – there is no technology that can help them do the job any faster.

What's more, many departments are already starting to drown with the public-records requests they get now for footage. It can take days, sometimes weeks or even longer to see what the officers’ cameras recorded.

Police, courts could grind to a halt

And that’s only going to get worse as the hours of footage and requests to see them increase. Most departments are struggling to fund officers on the street, much less the personnel necessary to review what's been recorded.

The backlog could paralyze police departments and grind the justice system to a halt, particularly if footage must be reviewed first by prosecutors to ensure nothing is released that could jeopardize a fair trial.

County Attorney Bill Montgomery went about it the wrong way, but he is right about one thing. This is a big problem that, for now, no one seems to know how to fix.

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com.

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