Latah County upgrades body cameras

MOSCOW - Body cameras worn by deputies at the Latah County Sheriff's Office will now be able to record for 12 hours at a higher resolution, and they won't die before the end of a shift.

Sheriff's Lt. Brannon Jordan said the old body cameras, which were built into the deputy's radio, were so old some batteries wouldn't last through a shift, and it forced deputies to prioritize when they should turn their cameras on.

Jordan said the department's policy is to turn body cameras on during every public contact, but to save battery life for more significant public interactions, deputies were reluctant to activate their cameras in routine situations.

"Guys couldn't get through their shift," Jordan said. "If the battery is dead we don't want to put guys in a position of 'do I really want to record going in this store to buy a soda?' "

The 10-year-old body cameras are being replaced by standalone devices with 72 hours of battery life and 12 hours of recording time.

"It's more than anyone should be able to record in a day," Jordan said.

The software upgrade cost $4,500, plus about $655 per body camera.

Currently, a dozen deputies are using the old cameras, and eight deputies have transitioned to the new Kustom Signals devices. The old cameras are expected to be phased out in the next six weeks.

In addition to the battery issue, a few of the older body cameras used by the deputies began to show solid pink screens, and needed to be repaired often.

"You had to do hocus-pocus to get them working," Jordan said.

The new software also means deputies will no longer have to manually upload the day's videos.

When the cameras are plugged into the charging station, all video on the camera is uploaded to storage and backed up automatically.

With the old cameras, deputies would occasionally forget to upload and label their videos, Jordan said, which resulted in videos being placed into a backup database and required some digging to find.

"If the officer didn't download it wouldn't show up in the case," he said.

When cameras were purchased a decade ago, the main purpose was to provide evidence for cases. For example, Jordan said, video was used to show a judge someone's action, like an intoxicated driver.

Now, the cameras also are used to ensure the officers are following the law, too.

"The culture has changed," he said. "The public expects everything we do to be captured on video."

In the event an incident is not recorded, Jordan said, an officer could be scrutinized for it.

Deputies went from being hesitant to wear the cameras when they were first rolled out to now not wanting to work without them.

"The body camera is just as important as their radio, or their firearm," Jordan said. "It's generally something that they want to have on them; they want to record criminal activity and they want to be covered in case there is any kind of complaint; they love to wear them."

The sheriff's office is also working to acquire in-car cameras. Currently about half of the fleet is equipped with cameras. The county has about 20 patrol vehicles and is expecting three or four new vehicles next year. Rather than install cameras in old vehicles, patrol cars that lack cameras will continue to be replaced with new vehicles with cameras in them.

Jordan, who has been with the Latah County Sheriff's Office since 1989, said cameras have changed law enforcement.

"Due to the lives that have been saved, the Taser is probably the No. 1 innovation introduced to law enforcement in my career; I would say cameras are No. 2. It helps capture the officer's perspective of what happened, it captures what is said, I wouldn't give them up for nothing."

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Babcock can be reached at (509) 339-3423, or by email to jbabcock@lmtribune.com.