The sheriff's office implemented its body camera program this week, issuing 60 of the 70 cameras and associated gear ordered to deputies and detectives.
"I think it is good for all of us to have them," Sgt. Wes Rasmussen said. "It makes our jobs easier."
In Selah, the department is gearing up to deploy the devices sometime in mid- to late September, as soon as training is completed and a policy on using the devices is completed.
They are moves that a Yakima civil rights attorney hopes will instill transparency and greater public trust in police agencies.
A body camera is a device the size of a deck of playing cards that attaches to an officer's shirt, vest or jacket that makes a video and audio recording of what is happening in front of the officer.
Proponents of the devices, both civilians and police, say they provide a record that can confirm or refute allegations of police abusing people.
Schilperoort said the devices also have the potential for defusing situations since people may choose to be more cooperative if they know they are being recorded.
But the devices raise concerns about violating people's privacy, since the cameras can go inside houses and other places with officers. And agencies have been concerned about the expense of storing the digital files the cameras produce, as well as responding to public records requests for the video.
In the case of the sheriff's office and Selah, recently enacted police reform laws influenced their decisions to implement the technology.
One of the provisions of a reform package approved by the Legislature requires police to record all interrogations of adult felony suspects and juveniles.
For deputies, that meant having to drive a suspect to either the sheriff's headquarters in Yakima or the substation near Zillah and use an interview room equipped with cameras and microphones, sheriff's spokesman Casey Schilperoort said.
Body cameras allow deputies to perform those interviews in the field, Schilperoort said, as they provide both an audio and video record.
Both the sheriff's office and Selah are using cameras made by Axon, the company formerly known as Taser, which also makes electric stun guns.
"We tested four versions of body cameras, and Axon was the best in terms of what we were looking for," Schilperoort said.
In addition to the body cameras, the sheriff's office will outfit patrol vehicles with Axon dashboard cameras that will integrate with the body cameras, as well as upgrade the interview rooms with Axon recording equipment.
The system also works with the stun guns, so that when one is deployed, it will activate not just the stun gun user's body camera, but those of other nearby deputies, Schilperoort said. The system will also activate if a deputy unholsters his pistol.
Christman said Selah will not link the cameras to firearms, as that required an additional sensor, but it will be tied in with the officers' stun guns.
Rasmussen, a traffic officer with the sheriff's office, said he has to remember to add the fact that he's recording a traffic stop with a body camera to his usual spiel when he goes up to a driver he's pulled over, as well as remembering to activate it.
When deputies come back to the station, they put the devices into a docking station that automatically downloads the video files into the system. Rasmussen said he just has to enter case numbers for each file.
In Yakima County, the costs are being covered by $1 million in state money that was earmarked for complying with legislative mandates. Schilperoort said 20 cameras and linked stun guns cost $178,000, which includes hardware and software upgrades, replacements and training for five years.
Christman said Selah has a $15,563 contract for five years.
Selah has also hired a person to handle public records requests for the videos, Christman said. That person will also go through training with the officers, scheduled for Sept. 16, but already has experience processing body camera video.
Schilperoort said the sheriff's office is still interviewing for someone to handle what they expect are inevitable requests for the video, which will have to be edited to comply with state law.
State laws passed in 2016 and 2018 exempt bodycam video from disclosure if it would be found to violate someone's privacy, show the inside of someone's home, medical facilities, reveal the location of a domestic violence shelter, show minors, dead bodies or reveal the identity of a witness or victim.
Christman said Selah's policy, which is being reviewed by the city attorney, will establish when the officers shouldn't hit record, such as in a locker room, if medical records are in view or if the officer is filling out a report on a computer.
He said the policy also looks at whether an officer should record someone who asks not to be recorded, such as someone who is distraught or having a mental health crisis and is not being arrested.
Yakima police Chief Matt Murray said YPD is not implementing the cameras at this time, due to the costs of data storage and handling public records requests. The department currently uses dashboard cameras, which he said are being switched from COBAN to Axon, which would integrate with body cameras if the department ever decides to use them.
Bill Pickett, a Yakima attorney who has represented families of police shooting victims and people who said they were victims of police brutality, said the cameras — if they work properly — should help improve relations between the public and police. Pickett said he's seen a few cases where either a dashboard camera did not pick up what was happening or someone forgot to turn on a camera or microphone.
"I think there is more than enough distrust between citizens and law enforcement going around," Pickett said. "This is long overdue."
Pickett has maintained that a body camera would have refuted a prosecutor's finding that Officer Casey Gillette's shooting of Rocendio Arias at an East Nob Hill Boulevard car wash in January 2014 was justified. While Gillette alleged that Arias, who was sitting in the car with what turned out to be a plastic pellet gun in his lap, lunged at him with a weapon, Pickett said the physical evidence at the scene told a different story.
While Gillette's car was equipped with a dashboard camera, it was angled away from the car Arias was in and did not capture the shooting.
©2022 Yakima Herald-Republic, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
