MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Minneapolis Police showed off their body cameras on Tuesday. Officers on the North Side are going through training this week. Downtown officers already have them.
Minneapolis Police started their pilot program in 2014. Over the last two years the department researched the cameras, got community input, was awarded a grant.
Mayor Betsy Hodges joined Chief Janée Harteau and members of the Minneapolis Police Department in announcing the implementation of body cameras.
“This is an important moment in the history of Minneapolis,” Mayor Hodges said.
The Mayor and Chief agreed, the cameras are a powerful tool that can increase trust, transparency and accountability.
“There’s often times this question of who’s done what. We’ve seen countless scenarios across this country, both positive and negative, that have been captured on video and we can use those in prosecution,” Chief Harteau said.
Officer Ken Feucht participated in the pilot program, and began wearing a camera full-time earlier this month.
“I’ve always policed as though there was a camera on me. You get someone with a cell phone they can edit it any way they want, that’s not going to happen with these so that helps us,” Feucht said.
He demonstrated how it works.
“When you want to activate it, it’s a double push, you’ll hear two beeps. That means its recording,” Feucht said.
The camera automatically captures the 30-seconds before an officer hits record.
“That video is available right now on this phone through the program,” Feucht.
On his phone you can see photographer Pete Neuswanger getting video, and me taking a picture.
“Any time an officer feels that there could be adversarial, potentially contentious interaction, certainly if you’re going to make an arrest the cameras must be on,” Deputy Chief Travis Glampe.
All Minneapolis Police officers will be outfitted with body cameras by mid-October. The officers are allowed to view the video to write reports. But if there’s a critical incident, they’re not supposed to watch it without permission. The department can tell if they do, and that’s a policy violation. Officers are also not able to delete any video.
At least 40 departments in Minnesota are already using them.