by Vivian Caniglia & Luis Jimenez

September 29, the Omaha City Council approved a new contract for the Omaha Police Department (OPD) for the purchase of equipment. The contract will last 5 years and provides $5.5 million in funding to purchase 586 body cameras, 586 tasers and a storage system for captured video.

The approval comes after a city council meeting the previous Tuesday, which included much deliberation. Arguments were made on the accountability cameras provide and opponents shared concerns about the large budget, explaining the funding would be better suited going toward mental health initiatives in Omaha. The council approved the contract citing the need for accountability in the OPD.

A deputy police chief told the council when asked that the “current taser is essentially on an electric line. What happens, it deploys from the weapon so the taser comes out so all fifteen feet of that line goes out with the taser. [...] The new taser is going to deploy from the taser probe itself, meaning that it only needs as much line as it needs. Additionally, it will have two cartridges. So we can have a close contact cartridge and one for distance.”

The Omaha City Council approved buying new body cameras and tasers for Omaha police earlier this week. Photo: Connecticut Public Radio

Opponent Scott Blake responded to the purchase by explaining that, “Body cameras are a tool for the police to surveil the public, not the other way around.” Blake was at the meeting for another agenda item, but he was moved by the “little faith” he held that the Omaha Mayor and police chief would change their minds on policing.

Cameras were proposed as a means to record and attempt to limit excessive force used by police officers. Body cameras have faced much debate as research finds they don’t reduce problematic issues in officers on duty.

Ford Brown spoke about the millions of dollars in funding that the Omaha City Council was considering during the public hearing. Brown who resides in midtown cautioned that “body cams should be used to show that the police are operating within their bounds. They should not be used to scope out criminals or innocent people behaving criminally—we can use them that way—but their main function as they were developed and put into action was to make sure that the police were not brutalizing or torturing or incriminating innocent civilians. And I think they need to prove themselves worthy before they get larger requests.”

PBS explained there are various issues of accountability with cameras. There are limits on who has to wear them, when they are activated and what is done with the footage ranging from state to state. In a 2018 study conducted by the Urban Institute on officers from the Milwaukee Police Department, found body cameras do not have a large effect on the use of force by officers on duty (Norwood, 2020).

Sarah Johnson, a local business owner and also a micro-transit advocate, discussed points of concern, “Signing a five-year contract for $5.5 million dollars when we are about to renegotiate the OPD contract [with the police union], I think that is kind of an interesting thing to just consider.”

The evidence argues there are larger systemic issues in the policing system beyond recording videos of officers' conduct. This is supported by a report from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2013, which said for body cameras to be effective, there need to be rules that enforce the use of the cameras and footage.

SOURCES:

KETV

Can Body Cameras Really Reduce Police Use of Force? by Government Technology
The failure of police body cameras by VOX
Body cameras are seen as key to police reform. But do they increase accountability? by PBS

Omaha City Council votes to approve $5.5 million for police body cameras and tasers

by Vivian Caniglia & Luis Jimenez

SOURCES: