MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Police Department appears open to re-evaluating aspects of their bodycam policy.
As part of a special meeting with the Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board on Tuesday, Morgantown Police Chief Eric Powell expressed open mindedness into exploring ways to refine aspects of the policy regarding bodycam activation. The consideration of the policy was announced as part of conversations with the board that also included plans to acquire more modern bodycams and continue a footage auditing process that has been conducted by the Morgantown Police Department for now several years.
“What we can do is maybe be more clearly defined about when it’s appropriate to actually activate your bodycam,” said Powell. “We can actually spell out, like if you get called to an incident, before you get out of your car, you’re turning on your body camera, I don’t see a problem with that,” he said.
For Powell and other members of the Morgantown Police Department, the potential adjustment of the officer bodycam policy stems from a recent review of bodycam footage that was found to have systems errors related to categorizing videos in correct dates. During the conversation with the board, a mandatory review of body cameras conducted by the department determined that recording errors were found on some of the older models, with videos allegedly being dated from as far back as 1967. With new bodycams expected to arrive in April, with more modern amenities expected to be included with them, Powell supported a review of the technology to see if they can support complete filming of interactions with no audio or buffering issues that was found with the older bodycams when footage was reviewed.
“We’re probably about a month out of having all of our bodycams completely switched over,” said Powell. “We’ve been experiencing some technical issues with some of our cameras, so probably about in April, we should have new body cameras,” he said.
The current bodycam policy for the Morgantown Police Department requires officers to have cameras operating within 30 seconds of an interaction with a citizen, with a random audit conducted on every body camera used by an officer on the force. For some members of the Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board, the policy relating to when officers are required to turn on bodycams was determined to be an issue that could conflict with potential prosecutions. While still awaiting for what the new bodycams will provide when they arrive in April, the Morgantown Police Department was urged to look into making it a requirement to have body cameras on before an interaction is conducted.
“We have cases and investigations where statements are given, evidence is collected, pictures are collected, but the bodycam is not working,” said board member Bryan Church. “That presents a significant problem down the road for prosecutions in cases,” he said.
With new bodycams scheduled to be acquired and installed by the end of April, Powell considers the switch a perfect opportunity to re-evaluate the requirements for Morgantown police officers using the tool while out on patrol. This is due to not only needing to understand the nuances of the new technology, but also to potentially find more ways to assist officers in the event that they are conducting an arrest. With policies related body cameras expected to be discussed with the Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board in the near future, Powell appears to be open to making adjustments as they see fit.
“I honestly don’t have a problem with being more definitive with respect with parameters in activating them,” said Powell. “I think it might be helpful actually, but we would really have to sit down and net it out, what’s appropriate to put into a policy and what isn’t,” he said.