Sharon Coolidge

scoolidge@enquirer.com

A test period for body cameras by Cincinnati police officers is over, and Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said it was so successful he wants all of the force's 600 uniformed officers to wear cameras.

The estimated cost of deployment: $500,000 to $1.5 million, according to the police department. One estimate on police documents show a system sold by Taser could cost as much as $2.2 million.

Cincinnati City Council's Law and Public Safety Committee pledged support to find the needed cash. Blackwell also is headed to Washington, D.C., this week to ask for financial help.

Blackwell said body cameras could have helped in Ferguson, Missouri, where furor erupted after a white police officer wasn't charged with a crime in the killing of Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed black man.

President Obama is calling for the federal government to provide $263 million in federal funding for body cameras and training for local police departments throughout the United States.

"I want to make sure we continue to stay in the cutting edge like we have," said Councilman Christopher Smitherman, chairman of the Law and Public Safety committee.

West Side officers tested the cameras for seven months. Blackwell said the officers were skeptical at first but ended up seeing the need. "They increase transparency and professionalism," Blackwell said.

Cincinnati Police Specialist Yvonne Gutapfel was one of the testers who didn't walk away convinced. "It's got some problems," she said.

"They film in the wrong place; it doesn't record 360. It has some limitations."

She's most concerned about privacy for victims. Under current public records laws., the recordings would likely be public.

"Almost everything is filmed now," she said. "People record what's happening, there are business cameras and city cameras. Whether we need to spend the money on body cameras, too, is questionable to me."

City lawyers have advised the department that, "As long as the recording takes place in public, the citizen(s) does not have an expectation of privacy. Therefore it is not necessary for the individual to consent or have knowledge that he/she (is) being filmed at the time of contact with the officer using the camera."

Fraternal Order of Police President Kathy Harrell said it's too early for the union to say whether body cameras are necessary..

"This needs to be an informed decision," Harrell said. "There is a concern that there is a big misconception that they will catch every part of what an officer does and that's not the case."

So far, she said, she hasn't seen data proving they are needed. "We need to be looking at equipment we have that is old and outdated, which are the in-car cameras," Harrell said. "Those cameras have shown time and time again that they are helpful."

In two recent critical incidents, the in-car cameras worked at the beginning of a shift but not during an incident in which they were needed.

The department has narrowed the choice of body camera vendors to two, the two most-used body camera systems in the country. The city's criteria include: audio quality, night video quality and ease of use.

Blackwell said safety will come first, and that may mean the cameras aren't on at all times.

The first academic study of body cameras was conducted by the City of Rialto Police Department, which found use of force incidents declined by 59 percent and citizen complaints were reduced by 87.5 percent. In another test, Mesa, Arizona, police found body cameras had 65 percent fewer complaints.

THE FINALISTS

TASER AXON Body Camera

-- Cloud based, dependent on vendor's software.

-- Manually activated.

-- Up to 13 hours of storage at the lowest quality recording setting.

-- Docked at the end of a shift to upload information.

-- Has a constant 30-second audio and video buffer that is recorded when activated.

-- Greater field of view than the VieVu.

VieVu LE3 Body Camera

-- Local storage system.

-- Up to five hours of recording time.

-- Records audio and video only when activated.

-- No docking station required.

-- Higher resolution video and audio compared to Taser.

-- After test period, Cincinnati officers said they preferred the VieVu because it was smaller and allowed officers to recognize instantly that it was recording.

BODY CAMERAS

The benefits

-- Increased transparency

-- Improved police officer behavior

-- Improved citizen behavior

-- Expedited resolution of complaints and lawsuits

The drawbacks

-- New technology

-- Concerns over privacy