An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union urged federal officials Thursday to deny the Los Angeles Police Department’s request for funding to purchase body cameras, claiming the department has adopted policies for using the cameras and releasing footage that hinder transparency.
The LAPD’s policy for body cameras “does not promote — and in fact undermines — the goals of transparency, accountability and creation of public trust that body-worn cameras should serve,” Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney with the Southern California chapter of the ACLU, wrote in a letter to the Department of Justice.
“Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Department of Justice deny LAPD’s request for funding,” and to award the funding to other law enforcement agencies with policies that “align more closely with the objectives” of the grant program and “better promise to build public trust,” Bibring wrote.
The letter refers to an LAPD grant application that requests funding for the purchase of 700 body cameras. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city officials are planning to purchase more than that number — about 7,000 cameras — with the goal of outfitting the entire department within a year.
About 860 body cameras purchased with private donations are being distributed at three Los Angeles police stations this month.
Garcetti and other city officials have touted the body cameras as an effort to increase transparency and build trust between police officers and the public, but ACLU attorneys have said in recent months that the body camera policy adopted by the department would not achieve those goals.
In the ACLU’s letter Thursday, Bibring wrote that the LAPD’s policy “is very different from the kind of program contemplated by the DOJ.”
Instead, the policy allows officers to view body camera footage prior to writing reports following use-of-force cases, such as when an officer shoots a member of the public.
“By withholding video from the public, requiring officers to review video before making statements in use-of-force and misconduct investigations and failing to include protections against the use of body-worn cameras as general surveillance tools, LAPD’s policy provides no transparency and threatens to taint the integrity of investigations and undermine the public trust,” Bibring wrote.
Bibring also said the department has not created policies for how it would release video recordings. Instead, Police Chief Charlie Beck “and high- ranking members of the department have repeatedly said that the department will treat body-worn camera videos as categorically exempt from disclosure under California’s public records law” and would not release the videos unless required by court order, he wrote.
“LAPD’s refusal to set forth clear policies on the public release of video also creates the impression it may release video that exonerates officers but not video that shows misconduct,” Bibring noted.
Bibring also wrote that LAPD’s approach to the release of body camera footage contradicts the DOJ’s recommendations for the grant program.
He points to a report by the Police Executive Research Forum, which the DOJ endorses as guidelines for the grant program, that says, “with certain limited exceptions, body-worn camera video footage should be made available to the public upon request, not only because the videos are public records but also because doing so enables police departments to demonstrate transparency and openness in their interactions with members of the community.”
Bibring said the Los Angeles Police Commission on two occasions declined requests by the ACLU that “a meaningful hearing” be held in which the Inspector General would “provide independent analysis” of the policy.
Commissioners also twice declined requests that experts be brought in to make presentations on different policy approaches and to learn from other police departments with different policies.
— City News Service