SALT LAKE CITY — Police body cameras have become a buzz word in Utah in recent weeks.

Some police departments are equipping more and more of their officers with the new devices that record their interactions with the public. But the state's largest police department, the Unified Police Department, prohibits its officers from using the devices — at least for now.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder, who oversees that department, thinks police agencies and the community need to take a step back and contemplate the repercussions of using those cameras before rushing to equip every officer with one.

"The right approach is to take a breath, let's figure out how we're going to use it and do so in a communicative way with the community," he said.

Ultimately, Winder agrees they are a great tool and if he had his way, he would equip his officers with them in three to six months.

"I think they promote better customer service. I think they promote liability reduction for the agency. The reason to have them is not just to protect the cop," he said.

Winder's opponent in the November election for sheriff, Jake Petersen, said he is a proponent of using body cameras but their use needs to be subject to periodic public review.

"A lot of folks feel like it's Big Brother, the more that there's cameras out there," said Petersen, a lieutenant who heads the Unified Police Department's special operations division. "That's a very legitimate concern. What we need is very clear policies with public input."

Peterson, who said cameras not only document police actions but can also can be useful training tools, called for a panel of officers and citizens to be created to study the footage to ensure the cameras are being used appropriately.

Last week, body camera videos from officer-involved shootings from the Salt Lake City and West Jordan police departments were released to the public. In both cases, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office determined that the officers were legally justified in using deadly force, in part because of what the video recordings from the body cameras depicted.

The body cam video from Salt Lake police officer Bron Cruz was used to help clear him in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Dillon Taylor. The video from West Jordan police officer Ian Adams was used to rule he was justified in the nonfatal shooting of Timothy James Peterson.

Both incidents received significant media attention. But Winder said that's outside the norm of how body cameras would actually be used on an everyday basis.

"Right now, I think everyone portrays them as the officer-involved shooter tool thing, like it's a one-trick pony. They're much more than that," he said. "People think the only time these are going to be used is in a high speed chase. They're not dash-cams. They're on people's persons all the time."

Questions to Consider

Winder said issues such as who can have access to the video or how it can be used by the media or in civil litigation cases should all be addressed before his department uses them.

"These things are going to be out and about, and it raises a bunch of questions about how long do we have to keep these records? How do we classify them? Who gets to edit them?" he said.

Winder posed a scenario of an officer who goes into a house where a child abuse is reported and films a messy house with a person who maybe just got out of bed. Suppose that person is involved in a heated divorce. Could the spouse request the police video to be used in their divorce case?

Share Your Thoughts:

Unified Police Department Facebook Page

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder is seeking the public's input concerning Law Enforcement's use of body cameras. Click on the link above to share your opinion with the sheriff.

"Not everybody thinks we should have (body cameras). There are people who have significant privacy concerns," he said.

Because of those concerns and others, Winder has put together a panel to study the issue and is taking input from the community on the Unified Police Department's Facebook page. The panel includes officers, community members and at least one person who is anti-police, he said. Winder said he is also considering inviting a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union to be on the panel.

The goal, the sheriff said, is not to have to go into reactionary mode after a civil lawsuit is filed and to have lawmakers address rules about the use of body cameras. He believes it's best to anticipate such issues now.

Winder points to a recently released article from the U.S. Department of Justice that includes a letter from the Police Executive Research Forum about body cameras.

"The decision to implement body-worn cameras should not be entered into lightly. Once an agency goes down the road of deploying body-worn cameras — and once the public comes to expect the availability of video records — it will become increasingly difficult to have second thoughts or to scale back a body-worn camera program," the letter states. "A police department that deploys body-worn cameras is making a statement that it believes the actions of its officers are a matter of public record."

Winder said some of his officers have actually purchased body cameras on their own. But for now, Winder has told them they are not allowed to wear them.

Currently, any image taken by a Unified police officer while on duty becomes the property of the department. The purpose of that, Winder said, is to prevent officers from doing something like taking pictures of a crime scene with their cellphone and posting it on Facebook.

If an officer has his or her own body camera, there are policy issues about storing it and how to use it, he said. For now, his officers can't have them.

But Winder hopes to change that sooner rather than later. Another issue, he said, is cost.

A recent survey by UtahPolicy.com found that 83 percent of residents strongly or somewhat agree that police should wear body cameras or other devices to record their interactions with the public.

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