OFF THE WIRE
Pauline Repard
Coronado police Sgt. Matt Mitchell shows how the Taser Axon video operates — John Gastaldo
CORONADO — Coronado police have some new technology they hope will keep officers and members of the public on their best behavior, improve crime scene investigations and aid evidence management.All for $20,000.
For that money, the department bought five miniature camera systems that are worn by officers at eye level to record what they see and hear on patrol, and endless off-site storage capacity for the recordings.
The Coronado Police Department is the first law agency in San Diego County to purchase the Axon head-cam system made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., said Steve Tuttle, company spokesman.
Coronado officials expect that when officers and the public know their actions are being recorded, they will be less likely to misbehave. A result could be fewer complaints and lawsuits over officer actions, and fewer challenges to traffic tickets.
“I’m a huge fan of this,” said Coronado police Sgt. Matt Mitchell, who has been overseeing officer training on use of the cameras. “A lot of time you have this ‘he said-she said’ sort of thing. This is going to be one of those profession-changing types of things.”
Police Chief Louis Scanlon said the high-definition recordings “ensure the quality of interaction with the public, and the safety of our officers. Though Coronado is a peaceful place, any officer always bears a risk.”
Scanlon said the device has already fended off one complaint of officer abuse, when recording of a public contact showed that the allegation was unfounded.
In a separate incident, an officer recorded a car blowing through a red light, and the driver gave up on challenging the ticket.
The Axon system includes a 1.2-ounce camera mounted on a headband and worn over the officer’s ear. A 3-ounce control panel with a “record” button hangs on the officer’s chest and connects to an 11-ounce computer, a little larger than a pack of cards, that shows the color video feed and can be worn on a belt or tucked into a large shirt pocket.
The computer holds 27 hours of video and its battery lasts 12 hours. Mitchell said officers typically might record four or five hours of public contacts or crime scenes in a 12-hour shift.
At the end of the shift, the computer nests into a charger that also uploads the recordings to a secure “cloud” server so that police computer memory is not bogged down.
Officers cannot delete or erase video, but they can attach still photographs, notes and labels to the recordings for easy retrieval from any computer. Mitchell called the simplicity of evidence management “the best part” of the entire system.
Tuttle said 39 Axon systems have been sold to law agencies nationwide since becoming available in 2010.
San Diego and La Mesa police tested the equipment, but have not decided to buy, in part because of the cost.
Mitchell said some Coronado officers tested the gear in January and February. The department used $20,000 in drug-asset seizure funds to make the purchase in August and took delivery of five systems in September.
In the second year of use, the system will cost $6,000 for limitless video storage and management. Mitchell said the department would like to buy five more cameras for use among its 44 sworn officers.
Scanlon said the department once had the more common dash-cams installed in patrol cars but found the camera’s field of vision limited.
“These devices provide new versatility,” the chief said. “When an officer is wearing the camera to a crime scene, we have a recording of that crime scene exactly as it existed, as opposed to calling in a crime scene photographer 20 minutes later.”
Mitchell said: “As an investigator, if you have some video that helps you, that’s priceless. We live in a 360 world.”
SAN DIEGO — In a digital age where cell phone cameras are continually pointed at police, a group of San Diego officers is turning the tables with cameras of their own.
The San Diego Police Department has joined a handful of other agencies across the nation to begin testing head-mounted video cameras that record officers’ interactions with the public.
Nine officers who work out of the Mid-City Division, which includes City Heights and the College Area, will wear the RoboCop-like gear while on routine patrol over the next 60 days. They will record everything from traffic stops and domestic disturbances to more volatile situations that have the potential to end with force.
“It gives real-time information on exactly what occurred at the scene. Anything that helps put the case into perspective,” San Diego Assistant Police Chief Bob Kanaski said yesterday. “No more ‘he said, she said.’ Now it’s in color.”
San Jose police officers have taken well to the cameras since they began testing in December, officials said.
“In speaking with some of our officers, they’ve definitely noticed people act different toward them now that they know they’re on camera,” said San Jose police Officer Jermaine Thomas.
Officers are not required to inform the public they are recording if they are in a public place or have probable cause to investigate a crime.
The AXON camera, about the size of a large Bluetooth device, hooks over the officer’s ear. The record button is on a small control panel that hangs on the officer’s chest. The third component is a handheld computer screen that shows the color video feed. The computer can store up to eight hours of material.
The recordings are then downloaded into a secure database at the end of the shift.
The officers are field testing the headsets for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International, which is in the end stages of developing the technology so it can begin sales to police agencies. The testing is being done at no cost to the Police Department, which will return the cameras at the end of the pilot program.
San Diego police officials say there’s no plan to purchase the gear.
Outfitting patrol officers would be expensive. Initial estimates by Taser put the cost at $5,700 per officer for three years of use, but a company representative said yesterday that cost could vary greatly depending on the department’s needs.
Using cameras in police work is not new, but Taser representatives say what makes theirs unique is the inability for officers to delete or edit the recordings.
The equipment helped exonerate one officer in Fort Smith, Ark., who fatally shot an armed man during a domestic disturbance in November, two weeks into testing the camera.
Police in St. Paul, Minn., and the Alabama state highway patrol are also testing them.
San Diego police Sgt. Darryl Hoover, who will be overseeing the field testing, said yesterday the equipment was fairly comfortable and easy to use, although the computer screen was “a bit bulky.”
“I feel it will reduce liability for the organization,” Hoover said. “It’s also one more added reminder to officers that this is something to be looked at day to day, and they could be judged.”
Kristina Davis: (619) 542-4591; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com
