Policy Text
A. PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to provide Department personnel who are equipped with Body
Worn Cameras, guidelines for the use, management, storage, and retrieval of audio-visual
media recorded by body worn camera systems. The use of body worn cameras may increase
the ability of users to effectively enforce the law, obtain evidence for criminal prosecutions,
protect Department personnel from false allegations of misconduct, document interactions
with the public, increase Departmental transparency and improve conduct by all parties during
police/public interactions.
BWC systems are not a substitute for Department members’ reasonable beliefs and
perceptions and cannot account for the physiological responses during critical incidents such
as visual tunneling and auditory exclusion. BWC recording systems should not be viewed as
the sole measure of truth or as the totality of the circumstances, because such systems and
their inherent limitations only capture video and audio evidence from the camera’s physical
position on the scene and not necessarily from the user’s overall perspective.