Starting in the next two weeks, some Chicago police officers will begin wearing body cameras, police announced today.
As part of a 45- to 60-day pilot program, officers working afternoon shifts in the Northwest Side’s Shakespeare District can wear body cameras on their headgear and clothing. The Shakespeare District covers parts of Logan Square, West Town and Humboldt Park.
“[T]his new program … will ensure more transparency from CPD and a new view of the work performed by our officers,” Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a statement. “While they are not the be-all-end-all, I believe body cameras will strengthen police and community relations.”
The department is being provided 30 cameras that attach to officers’ glasses, headgear or clothing. Officers will turn the cameras on during routine stops as well as “high-risk situations,” according to the statement. They will be required to inform anyone they contact that they are being recorded.
The equipment is being provided by Taser International Inc., at no cost to the police department, according to a news release.
After 45 to 60 days, the police department will evaluate the program. A police spokesman did not have details on what would constitute a successful pilot program.
“It’s a pilot program; we’re trying to implement it and we’re going to try and address questions,” police spokesman Officer Veejay Zala said.
Widely publicized incidents across the country in which police officers killed civilians in the line of duty have magnified calls for body cameras over the past few months, said Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois. Some say requiring officers to record incidents reduces incidents of excessive police force.
“Whenever we have these high-profile situations, they begin to they really kind of amp up a lot of desire for that kind of record,” Yohnka said, mentioning the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York.
Yohnka is hopeful the camera program will be “a really powerful tool” for oversight, though he said the ACLU has suggested police record every interaction with a civilian, when reasonable.
“What we worry about is an interaction that begins innocently and escalates,” he said.
The Chicago officers equipped with cameras will record “routine calls of service, investigatory stops, traffic stops, foot and vehicle pursuits, emergency driving situations and high-risk situations” during the pilot program, according to the news release.
The Los Angeles Police Department has plans to implement a large-scale body-camera program by July 2016; according to a news release, the New York police are testing similar cameras.
A spokesman for the police union was not immediately available to comment.
In a news release, Mayor Emanuel stated his support of the program.
“Through these cameras, we can use technology as a tool to continue to build the trust between officers and residents,” he stated.
Minutes after the release was made public, mayoral challenger Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) sent his own statement to accuse the mayor of pandering.
“It has taken an election for him to do it, but I’m glad 35 days before Chicagoans go to the polls, the mayor has discovered our neighborhoods,” Fioretti stated.
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