Dash Cameras
Patrolman Brian Dorin cruises in a camera-equipped car
(DAVID I. ANDERSEN)
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty
As the Cuyahoga County prosecutor can, by Ohio statute, spend funds forfeited by criminals we help convict, I am given an opportunity to invest in efforts to enhance public safety and improve the performance of our criminal justice system. One of the best possible uses of this money is to see that dash cameras are in every police car and body cameras are worn by every police officer in Cuyahoga County. Most major cities across America have used dash cameras with great success during the past two decades.
Indeed, numerous experts have concluded in report after report that dash cameras provide clear and compelling benefits to the public and to police officers.
From the prosecutor's viewpoint, the dash cameras will provide the proof we need in a criminal trial. The police car is the mother ship for patrol officers. Much of an officer's activity is done in or near the police car. The dash cams record a 360-degree view, including any statements or interrogations that may take place, providing indisputable proof of exactly what occurred and what was said. False accusations of police misconduct, threats and disputed confessions will be things of the past.
Many cities using cameras have experienced a dramatic drop (60 percent to 80 percent) in citizen complaints against police and a corresponding increase in public confidence in the police. Far more money is saved in reduced lawsuit settlements than is spent on the cameras.
Cleveland is purchasing, testing and installing body cameras -- a very sound decision by Mayor Frank Jackson. They have already proven to be invaluable. Cameras obviously will assist the city in its negotiations for a settlement with the Department of Justice.
In one recent Cleveland case, body cameras provided extremely reliable evidence in a use-of-deadly-force case.
Camera footage will eliminate the need for the kind of prolonged, expensive criminal investigation that was necessary in the Brelo case. Grand juries will be able to see exactly what happened and hear what was said. Cams will prevent a Blue Wall from obstructing the view. The dash and body cams will be an unblinking eyewitness to the true facts of every crime.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office has offered to pay $500,000 toward the cost of dash cameras in every active Cleveland police car, and the city has accepted our offer.
The dash cameras and body cameras will make a powerful combination. The dash camera will automatically turn on when the siren is activated, when a certain speed is reached or when the shotgun is removed from its rack. It can also be turned on by the officer. That means any high-speed chases will be well documented for investigation and training purposes.
The County Prosecutor's Office has also agreed to assist other cities in Cuyahoga County. Parma, the county's second-largest city, has been offered a matching grant to purchase additional cameras. We already have provided some assistance for the same purpose to East Cleveland, where the Police Department is understaffed, as it is in Cleveland. Dash cameras and body cameras help fill the safety void that understaffing creates.
Fortunately, most suburban police departments are already equipped with cameras, but this office will assist any that are not.
The collection of video and audio evidence is now commonplace across America. It is a positive, irreversible phenomenon that will have a profound effect on public awareness of the realities of how law enforcement interacts with violent and nonviolent offenders.
Arrests and use-of-force incidents are often necessarily brutal in nature. The general public is not accustomed to watching the actual shootings and death on the local TV news as they eat their evening meal. But there is no going back.
These recordings will bring complete transparency to what had been the most lonely and dangerous moments in law enforcement. With the cams, there will be complete accountability. They will provide the strongest evidence of the truth and an opportunity to prove exactly what happened. No longer will it be the police officers' word versus that of the arrestee or the coroner's verdict.
The cameras will re-create the precise viewpoint of the officers for all to judge the professionalism or lack thereof. Any culture of secrecy or self-protection that might exist in any police department will not survive the era of cameras. Where needed, improved training, discipline and hiring will have to occur. Public confidence will rise with the level of professionalism achieved, and the disconnect that has grown between a community and its police will diminish.
I am confident that these cameras will improve the quality of the justice we deliver to the citizens of Cuyahoga County. This is a huge step toward ending errors and tragedies like the Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell and Tamir Rice cases.
Timothy J. McGinty is the Cuyahoga County prosecutor.