News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston Police updating its policy regarding the use of body cameras by law enforcement.
Police Chief Ray Smith said that the policy update was suggested by the city of Livingston’s insurance provider, Public Entity Partners. The update was specifically raised regarding the insurance company’s concerns of risk management.
“We got to looking at our body cams through the risk management kinda seeing what we had,” Smith said. “And they reviewed our policy, and it was best that we go into it because it was pretty old policy, and look at new updates.”
Smith said that each officer will read the new policy as well as take a class as a part of their training. Officers will then be shown how to operate their new body cameras during their day-to-day work
Circumstances in which body cam footage would be reviewed include open records requests and performance reviews. The new body cams also allow for police to review reports made by citizens after interacting with officers, Smith said. Specifically, footage would be reviewed to ensure that the complaint being made is in fact based on true events.
“It also helps you go back and review any kind of conversation or go back and review to see if the camera caught somethin’ that the officer did not see,” Chief Smith said. “It’s not there just to spy or anything on the officer or give judgment on him.” (0:16)
Smith said that the body cams will be used for additional record-keeping to help fellow officers. He said body cams are a great tool that allows police to provide additional evaluation regarding officer conduct.
Officers will be trained and ready to use body cameras hopefully by the end of the month.
