Police body cameras coming to Tacoma in early 2021, plans show
The city of Tacoma plans to roll out body cameras for police officers in early 2021, according to a presentation made to the City Council on Tuesday.
The deployment of 255 officer cameras is slated to occur over the course of three months, starting January 2021.
Tacoma Police Department estimates a four-hour block of training for officers to understand the camera system and the policies.
“The goal is that when officers leave that training, they will be equipped with a body camera and ready to deploy in the field,” Capt. Fred Scruggs said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Expected cost is $1.2 million to implement the body camera system in the first year, then $800,000 for each consecutive year.
There’s still work to do before the cameras are deployed, according to staff. Negotiations will be ongoing with the Tacoma Police Union through the new year.
Union president Chris Tracy told The News Tribune last month that “the union will continue to work constructively and collaboratively” with the police department on a body camera policy.
The Citizen Police Advisory Committee (CPAC) is reviewing the draft policy and will solicit feedback from the public. More information around what public feedback will look like is coming.
The current draft policy, which was reviewed by The News Tribune, closely resembles body camera policies in other jurisdictions, like Spokane.
Three staff members also need to be hired to deal with video redaction. The department anticipates six weeks to hire the staff and two weeks to train them, starting in November.
The city has not yet selected a vendor for the cameras, but has narrowed it down to Axon and Motorola as of March. CPAC is currently formulating a recommendation for a vendor.
The police department will prioritize deployment of the cameras to commissioned personnel, which includes:
170 patrol officers
30 sergeants
13 community liaison officers
11 lieutenants
7 traffic enforcement officers
4 school resource officers
4 Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) members
4 Violence Reduction Team (VRT) members
4 animal control officers,
2 K9 officers
2 Business Improvement Area (BIA) officers
2 captains
1 chief
1 assistant chief
An additional 20 cameras will be set aside for people who occasionally work in a uniformed capacity. Later on, it’s the department’s intention to phase in cameras for non-uniformed positions, such as detectives.
While the city has explored implementing a body camera policy since 2015, protests against police brutality over the recent deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Manuel Ellis in Tacoma renewed the conversation around body cameras.
“We’ve gotten more demands for body cams in the last two months than we’ve had in the last three years,” Mayor Victoria Woodards said at Tuesday’s meeting.
City Council members said Tuesday they felt it important to move quickly and efficiently to implement a policy.
“This is a high priority for me — I want to move forward with this as quickly as we can, but I do think the community engagement time CPAC has built into this … is really, really important,” Council member Kristina Walker said.
