LIMA — Lima police officers will, if all goes according to plan, be equipped sometime this spring with an additional tool in their ongoing fight to protect the public.
Lima City Council, earlier this month, unanimously approved a request from police officials for the purchase of approximately 60 body cameras, enough for the nearly the entire force, at an estimated cost of $300,000. Delivery is expected within the next 60 days.
But if the anticipated date for the city’s implementation of a police body camera program is a moving target, so too is the legal definition of public records as they pertain to the new cameras. The addition of body cameras will without question be a learning process for city police officials, just as it will be for local media outlets, attorneys and the public as a whole who may wish to view the video footage produced.
Maj. James Baker of the Lima Police Department, who oversaw a lengthy pilot program during which six different body camera models were tested, said he talked with police officials in Columbus, Cleveland and other large Ohio cities to compare notes on the various types of equipment necessary to implement the fledgling program.
Baker said those discussions focused primarily on the differences between camera models and vendors and less to about the handling of video once it’s been captured.
“We checked with other departments to see what they’re using — what they like and what they don’t like,” Baker said. “Time and time again we heard, ‘Do your due diligence’ in selecting a vendor” for cameras and other hardware.
He said one of the biggest surprises was the vast difference between models in terms of the number of frames per second captured. Baker said he was told that a camera with a low frame-per-second ratio “can miss things” that otherwise would be captured by a camera with a higher ratio.
But the better the camera, the higher the resolution of the videos, which in turn requires a greater amount of storage space for the data captured and a greater up-front cost. All those factors will be taken into consideration when selecting a vendor, Baker said.
The city is still awaiting the submission of requests for purchase from vendors hoping to supply the city with body cameras but hopes to have cameras in hand within the next two months. Baker said police employees will be trained in the use of the cameras by whatever vendor is selected.
Public information and the law
Baker and other city officials are fully aware of the logistical tightrope that must be walked as it pertains to the body cameras and public records they capture.
“The public records aspect is kind of an unknown,” Baker said earlier this week, “but for the most part we’re going to handle the [body cam] videos just like we do with our cruiser videos now.”
Lima City Law Director Tony Geiger said city leaders consulted with him often throughout the process of making a determination to proceed with the purchase of body cameras. In the absence of a state statute that fully addresses body camera videos as they pertain to existing public records laws, Geiger said decisions on what constitutes a public record will be made for the time being on a case-by-case basis.
“If the police department has any question about whether to release a video, they will call our office and ask us,” said Geiger. “We will apply the law as it pertains to the current public records statute.
“It just depends on the facts of the case,” said the law director. “Our goal would be to analyze the existing public records law and make our determination. Until the Legislature decides on how to change the law, you just have to deal with it as it is and make your decision. It’s part of what our job is.”
State Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, is pushing a bill in the Ohio House of Representatives that attempts to define which videos are public and when police can withhold them from release. House Bill 425 regarding police body camera footage is currently in the House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee waiting for its second hearing, Lindsey Short, a legislative aide in Antani’s office, said earlier this week.
Body camera video is generally considered to be a public record, according to the bill, except if it’s taken in a private home or business, involves the victim of a sex crime or is part of a confidential ongoing investigation. Questions remain on issues ranging from the depiction of minors in camera video to whether images depicting nudity should be released to the public.
American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio lobbyist Gary Daniels told the Dayton Daily News recently that the civil liberties group is backing Antani’s proposal, saying it strikes the right balance of keeping government open, holding police accountable and protecting personal privacy.
Local NAACP leader endorses cameras
Rev. Ron Fails, president of the Lima NAACP, has had his share of run-ins with police. But he nonetheless is on board with the Lima Police Department’s addition of body cameras, as long as full transparency is maintained.
“I am 100 percent in support of the addition of body cameras,” Fails said earlier this week. “I believe the cameras can be beneficial to both law enforcement and to the local citizenry and will exact greater accountability out of law enforcement. I think the cameras will help give us that third eye.”
Fails has already seen how body cameras can resolve a dispute between citizens and police. He was summoned in recent months by officials in Celina after an NAACP member alleged police harassment there.
“We had a member in Celina who filed a complaint with our office, and we met with officials to view footage from a body camera” surrounding the alleged incident, said the NAACP president. “The footage revealed that law enforcement went beyond the call of duty to protect our member.
“We left with a greater respect for law enforcement in Celina because of this particular case, where the officers were being falsely accused.”
Fails said the Lima Police Department and the community will be well-served with the addition of body cameras, but only “if they are used and used correctly.” He said the failure of local officials to institute rigid guidelines for the proper use of the body cameras could erode the relationship between police and the community.
“The NAACP is not here to fight law enforcement. We need to work together and do what’s right, and we support the decision to equip the officers with body cameras,” said Fails.
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