Wilmington Police Department Now Fully Equipped With Body-worn Cameras | The latest news from WDEL

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“We are happy to share that we have completed the training of every member of our department – except those who are long term leave, military leave and FMLA – so now the officers of each division, including myself, as you can see on this camera … were equipped with body-worn cameras, ”said Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy.

At the last city council meeting on Monday, July 14, 2021, Tracy announced that the department has successfully implemented increased accountability for all law enforcement in the city by issuing and training all officers in the city. use of body cameras.

Tracy said it was still on and recorded, but also had a feature to flag the previous 30 seconds of an interaction to record it on the officer’s instruction.

“By policy, officers must activate their cameras whenever they exercise… law enforcement power or engage in law enforcement action,” Inspector Cecilia Ashe said.

City Councilor Shane ‘Darby wanted to know how the images would be reviewed and evaluated, both internally and externally. At first, Ashe said body-worn camera footage was reviewed by administrators every day.

“Body cameras are reviewed daily and corrective action is taken by any supervisor when reviewing these images to correct any kind of problem,” she said. “These problems are solved.”

Externally, it is a little more delicate. Although the images are uploaded to a site shared with the Delaware Department of Justice for use in post-arrest legal proceedings, and could potentially be reviewed by an accused at that time, there is no would have no way for the audience to rate the images for themselves. Due to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR), even a civilian review board would have difficulty obtaining the images under current laws and rights.

“The Civil Review Board received money in our last budget, which I think is great,” said Darby. “Will the Civil Review Board have access to body camera images?” “

“It’s something that still falls under the state legislature,” Tracy replied. “The Law Enforcement Bill of Rights, right now, as it is, there will be things that will complicate that…[There would] has to be another conversation, understanding where everything is going and how, in particular, a complaints review committee is going to be set up, and we define what the responsibilities are. So it’s very difficult to answer this question now until we can somehow refine exactly how this is going to be put together. “

City Councilor Chris Johnson said there was nothing they, as an organization, could do to address this issue apart from state-level action.

“Just for clarity for the public and for board members, we have maximized, I think, the extent to which we can get information made public under the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights, LEOBOR “, did he declare. “So I think where we are right now, unfortunately, it depends, as the chief said, on the state legislature. So if anyone wants to advocate for these changes, so we can make the information more accessible to the public, please do it. But unfortunately that is not the responsibility of the city council. ”

The images are treated as evidence and should ideally be kept for 100 years, Ashe noted.

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