By Jennifer Modenessi, East Bay Times
WALNUT CREEK — The city’s police force may soon be wearing body cameras.
The Walnut Creek City Council is moving forward to equip police with the chest-worn devices, embracing the technology despite few complaints about conduct and relatively rare uses of force.
“I think this could best be characterized as insurance,” said Police Chief Tom Chaplin, explaining recently to lawmakers the cameras could help dispel “any notions of excessive use of force or misconduct,” among other benefits.
The Nov. 1 green-lighting allows Chaplin to move ahead with rolling out the $1.5 million program over three years. It includes the purchase of 100 cameras and cloud storage, and the hiring of three police service officers, a program manager and part-time records technician.
The lightweight VieVu cameras would be worn by everyone from field training officers and investigators to the police chief. Chaplin projects that all sworn officers would be outfitted when the cameras are fully deployed within a year, and they would also be used by reserve officers. The department currently has 84 police officers, and some cameras would be banked as replacements for non-functioning devices.
Used by thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country, the cameras were the focus of a 2015 open town hall poll that found 92 percent of Walnut Creek residents surveyed supported city officers wearing cameras. About 86 percent of residents agreed the devices would make police more accountable, and 82 percent responded the cameras would improve the public’s trust of police, according to a staff report.
Police have been studying the technology since 2013, and have field-tested several devices.
Other options floated before the council included a less costly program requiring additional staff time and less dedicated personnel, and a more expensive program with four new police officers.
The city could have also decided against the cameras, something Chaplin said would make the department an outlier. Cities in the county with camera programs or preparing to use the devices include Brentwood, Danville, Lafayette, Moraga and Richmond, according to the chief. They are also used by BART, the East Bay Regional Park District and the California Highway Patrol.
Council members agreed that the city couldn’t afford to not use cameras, despite some worries about the cost.
“In my mind, the No. 1 responsibility of government is the safety of citizens and to the extent that this would accommodate and further that safety, I am behind that — even though I don’t necessarily see a need for it,” said Rich Carlston, Mayor Pro-Tem.
Police will return to the council with a finalized program budget for approval.
©2016 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.