Pasadena Police Are Zooming In on Body Cameras Purchase, Awaiting New Model Launching in August

The Pasadena City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the body which recommends police-related actions to the full Council itself, will meet Monday for the first time under the chairmanship of Councilmember John Kennedy.

It will also be the first meeting of that Committee since the Council voted to fund police body cameras when it passed the 2016 city budget in late June. $300,000 was allocated to purchase the cameras this fiscal year.

The cameras are seen by many activists as the logical “next step” in holding the behavior of police accountable in the wake of numerous police shootings nationwide. Many police officers say the cameras can often reveal why officers reacted as they did, and can show how suspects actually behaved during encounters when witnesses’ accounts vary widely.

The Pasadena Police Department has been testing body cameras since 2013, closely watching the evolution of the devices as technology has rapidly improved.

Body cameras clip onto officers’ uniforms to record interactions with citizens. The Pasadena Police Department has tested several variations of body cameras in Old Pasadena including one with a screen showing the person beings recorded.

“When people see themselves being recorded, it can go one of two ways. We have seen with our interactions with drunken people in Pasadena they check their behavior because they know they’re being recorded,” Officer Joshua Jones said, who leads the research for new technology at the Police Department.

However officers have also noticed that with routine interactions such as a traffic violation, citizens can become more agitated because they do not understand why they are being recorded for running a stop sign.

Depending on the height and body build of the officer, the camera is clipped onto the officer’s uniform in the central part of the body at the chest or the belt.

One click of a button will turn the camera on easily as an officer enters what could be a combative or nonviolent situation, with a small vibration to alert the officer videoing is engaged.

Once engaged, the camera draws from its memory bank what happened in the 30 seconds before pressing the record button.

“The battery life is one of the biggest issues. As nice as it would be to have it going all the time so you have that fail-safe, the battery technology isn’t there yet. They are making advancements in the next couple of years,” Jones said.

The two cameras currently being tested by the Pasadena Police have a very different battery life range. While one is substantially heavier, the battery life is nine hours, much longer than its lighter counterpart that has a three hours battery life.

With such a short battery life, it is not an option to leave the camera on for an officer’s entire shift.

“The way we are putting together our policy and procedures for body cameras, we’re not just looking at Pasadena,” Jones said.

Jones and his team are looking to the Los Angeles Police Department and the other agencies that have been mandated by the courts to begin using body cameras to shape the policy written for Pasadena.

A large docking system at the police station will hold all the cameras — charging and uploading the video footage simultaneously.

Another parameter the Pasadena Police Department has placed on finding the right body camera is the ability of the camera to interface with the car camera system.

The instant documentation for incidents has been well-liked by the officers who test them for analysis according to Jones.

“With the introduction of any new technology there is reticence because of the learning curve that goes with it. As more officers use the cameras the acceptance level skyrockets, especially as soon as a person has a complaint lodged against them,” Jones said.

Rather than having concern about wearing a camera, Lt. Tracey Ibarra said the concerns have turned to how cumbersome is the camera and whether or not it will tear their uniform. One clip could not hold the camera well while the officers ran, allowing it to fall off.

“They want to be able to use the cameras to best of its ability. They are evaluating how well they can keep the equipment and use it without it interfering with daily responsibilities, not do I have to wear a camera,” Ibarra said.

The Police Department is still evaluating the various cameras available. A company has a new product coming out in August that Lt. Ibarra said may be better suited to their needs than previously tested models.

Jones is currently working on the purchase proposal. The purchasing process can take up to six months with the necessary collaboration between the three entities of the finance committee, information technology and the police department.

“I would hope to have this within a year,” Ibarra said. “We’re ahead of the curve in that we have been doing the analysis, agencies reach out to PPD to find out how to research all this and do analysis.”

Once the cameras are chosen, the cameras will likely need to be replaced in less than five years due to the quickly evolving and constantly changing technology in this field.