Tacoma police started a process to implement body cameras years ago. Where are they?
As a way to improve relations between police and residents, the Tacoma Police Department in 2016 proposed implementing police body cameras.
The cameras were part of a list of 31 proposed changes through Project PEACE, which formed in 2015 in response to national conflicts resulting from the fatal shooting of Michel Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the year before.
At the time, Chief Don Ramsdell wanted to see officers start using the body cameras in two to three years.
“You see less officer complaints, less uses of force, less issues of assaults against officers, less claims to the city,” Ramsdell told The News Tribune in 2016.
But nearly five years later, as protests erupt across the country and in Tacoma in response to the death of George Floyd and other black people at the hands of police, the department doesn’t have a body camera policy.
“In 2015 we did the beginnings of the Project PEACE process and body cams was one of the things on the top of the list that black people said that they wanted, and in my humble opinion, we failed ... because here it is five years later and we don’t have body cams on officers,” Tacoma City Council member Keith Blocker said at a meeting on Thursday.
Tacoma PD didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday, but former TPD spokesperson Loretta Cool told The News Tribune in an update in November that the city had a committed team doing research on body cameras and had not decided on a specific vendor. Cool also said the process still needs to go through a labor agreement with the police union.
Chris Tracy, president of Tacoma Police Union I.U.P.A. Local 6, said the union has worked with the Tacoma Police Department on a testing and evaluation system for a body-worn camera program that will allow the department to measure the feasibility of such a program.
“In addition to evaluating the technology itself, considerations such as costs to the taxpayers and privacy concerns for members of the public must be evaluated,” Tracy said by email Thursday. “After that evaluation period, the union will continue to work constructively and collaboratively with the department should the department wish to proceed with any further discussions about equipping our officers with body cameras.”
In terms of a time line, Tracy deferred questions to TPD.
In a live statement Thursday night, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards called for the firing of four police officers involved the death of Manuel Ellis, who died while being restrained by police on March 3, and also demanded immediate action to fund police body cameras.
“I am also directing the city manager to move forward with allocating funding for body cams immediately,” Woodards said. “We have waited way too long, and we have heard way too many excuses. It stops tonight, and we move forward.”
LOOKING FOR VENDORS
In 2017, the Tacoma Police Department published a request for information seeking body-worn audiovisual cameras with local data storage and docking stations as part of a pilot program. The intention was for the trial run to take place that year.
A records request made by The News Tribune in November shows the department received responses and samples from 13 different body camera vendors.
But in the summer of 2017, the project stalled, according to a letter to vendors from department staff, stating it would be “a few more months or possibly till the end of the year” as they looked at identifying costs and until a public disclosure report was completed.
From the beginning, implementing a body camera policy was recognized as a complicated endeavor, with privacy, cost and procedural concerns.
The overall cost of the program is unclear, but prior News Tribune reports estimate the cameras costing anywhere from $700,000 to $2.2 million — and that’s not including budgeting for additional manpower to handle hundreds of hours of video.
Public safety, which includes both fire and police departments, make up 65 percent of the city’s $514.6 million general fund 2019-20 biennial budget. Police specifically make up 35 percent of the general fund at $175 million. The city’s police force stands at about 354 officers, which is fewer than pre-recession levels, where the number of officers stood at a little over 400.
As some push to find funding for body cameras, others across social media feel the city spends too much on law enforcement and are calling for city officials to “defund the police.”
“It comes as a shock to most people that the most money spent by Tacoma general government on any single department is on the police,” said one Twitter user this week.
“Tacoma must end the delays and defund the police and make better usage of their budget,” added another Twitter user.
One user asked Woodards through Twitter if the city has “any plans to defund our police department and divert the funds back into the community”.
Right now, the city is grappling with an estimated $40 million deficit this year alone as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘FAST-TRACK’ THE PROCESS
In addition to George Floyd, protesters in Tacoma are demanding justice for Manuel Ellis, whose cause of death on March 3 was ruled to be respiratory arrest due to hypoxia due to physical restraint by police, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office and reported on by The News Tribune earlier this week.
James Bible, the attorney for the Ellis family, said at a press conference on Thursday that TPD officers would have had both body and car dashboard cameras if they “were responsible in terms of policing.”
“The reality is that this moment, very few people actually believe black folks when there’s not a video. What would George Floyd look like without that video? That’s the question we have to pose for ourselves,” Bible said.
Gregory Christopher, pastor with Shiloh Baptist Church and president of the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance, has been involved in Tacoma’s Project PEACE throughout the years.
“We have been pushing for body cameras,” he told The News Tribune on Thursday. “We feel like they have basically been dragging their feet.”
Body cameras will not only help determine if police are using excessive force but also if police are falsely accused, Christopher said.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” he said.
Christopher hopes the unrest will begin to ignite more robust and vigorous conversations around body cameras in Tacoma.
In addition to Woodards’ demand on Thursday for funding, multiple Tacoma City Council members encouraged themselves and staff on Tuesday to take a hard look in expediting the body cameras process.
“If we’re going to be committed to public safety and we know that black people feel the least safe in the city of Tacoma, then body cams must be something that we must prioritize,” Blocker said.
City Council member Conor McCarthy said the city appeared to be on track for picking a vendor by December of this year but pushed to “fast-track” that discussion.
Woodards said she’s glad everyone is on the same page in terms of taking a deeper look at body cams but said they are only part of the solution.
“Once you get body cams, you’re going to deal with every bit of footage that comes in, so we have to change the policy — that when we see something, we have to be brave enough to do something,” she said.
