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With Little Fanfare, Police to Roll Out New High-Tech Patrol Car Video Cameras

Published on Thursday, July 2, 2015 | 8:05 pm
 
A Watchguard high definition video camera shown mounted on a patrol car. (Image: Palo Alto Police Dept.)

While body cameras have stolen much of the recent limelight, Pasadena Police have moved ahead with plans for an August launch of a state-of-the art patrol car video camera system that continuously records everything it sees, without an officer needing to turn it on or being able to turn it off.

The three-camera system manufactured by Watchguard Video captures high definition video offering 180-degree panoramic front-facing views and interior views of the back seat.

The video will be written to a non-removable hard drive in the car that automatically uploads to a secure server wirelessly as soon as the car pulls into the police station garage.

The view from inside the patrol car showing the mini-monitors on the Watchguard system screen. (Image: Palo Alto Police Dept.)

“Automatic, continuous recording is certainly desirable as it protects from individual officers choosing what and when to film.  Automatic recording of the Kendrec McDade shooting might have settled the facts in capturing what happened that night,” community activist and ACLU member Kris Ockershauser said.

Officers involved in pursuing and ultimately shooting McDade never activated their patrol car’s onboard video system during the 2012 incident.

Local civil rights attorney Skip Hickambottom said the automatic recording could have helped settle whether or not McDade was reaching for his waistband to warrant reasonable fear by the officers that he had a gun.

“We believe camera technology and the ability to record is an important part of an accountable police department. The fact that the cameras will be automatically activated is a good thing,” Hickambottom said.

Officer Joshua Jones conducts the research for the Pasadena Police Department’s new technology purchases.

“If something happens and based on the circumstances you forget to turn the camera on because you need to respond and hitting the record button was not the first thing on your mind, you will be able to go back after the fact to grab that video for a limited time period,” Jones said.

The in-car system has an ongoing loop that holds video footage for 40 hours, without the audio. The footage will not get uploaded to the server, but within that 40 hour time period the officer can go back to an incident to save it as a file.

As soon as an officer pushes the recording button then audio is added to the video file which then creates a file on the hard drive as a specific incident.

The video system can continue recording even after the car turns off if the car’s battery is sufficiently charged.

“We’re looking at implementing a secondary battery that would power the cameras while the car is off but we’re still in the research phase of modernizing the police vehicles,” Jones said.

Jones said the three-camera system was selected with the expectation of adding body cameras for every officer.

“Instead of increasing the cost of the system by adding additional exterior cameras, the officers’ body worn cameras will be leveraged for capturing the important interactions outside the vehicle,” Jones said.

As the research for body cameras continues, Jones said a wireless router might be installed in the car so that all the cameras could connect to each other and sync the recordings.

The process to get the cameras has been laborious, having begun with the purchasing request in April of 2014.

Panoramic, Primary HD, and Body-Worn Camera Comparison from watchguardvideo .

 

“I hope the Public Safety Committee, as the Council’s official oversight body, will have a chance to review and comment on policies for the new in-car cameras,” Ockershauser said.

In the 2012 Pasadena Police Department policy manual, the guidelines for required video activation include any potential criminal conduct such as pursuits, arrests, DUI investigations, and any situation that requires the overhead lights to be activated. The officer also should begin recording if a situation becomes adversarial or any other circumstance deemed appropriate for recording.

During the pursuit and subsequent shooting of Kendrec McDade, officers never activated their car’s video system. This new system eliminates the need for officers to activate the cameras, since the video rolls continuously.

“Part of problem is the fact that we don’t have these discussions in the public safety committee so we don’t know what the policy is. If the officers have the discretion to activate or deactivate the video or the audio I would think that’s a problem,” Hickambottom said.

Officer Jones said the policy would be updated as necessary once the system is installed and the differences are assessed.

“The new features, such as the background recording and HD video, won’t change the way an officer uses the system.  That said, the policy is a living document and one of the driving forces behind updating it is new ‘best practices,’” Jones said.

The Palo Alto, Calif. Police Department also purchased a similar system by Watchguard Video in December, 2013 that uses five cameras to include side and rear views.

“We’ve had them for a little bit more than a year and half now,” said Palo Alto Police Lt. Zack Perron said “and they’re fantastic.”

When Palo Alto police installed the Watchguard Video in-car camera system, no policy changes were made outside of minor changes related to the operation of the new equipment.

“Policy issues and privacy concerns are things that are always going to take a front seat anytime the government is recording anything,” Perron said.

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