Metro Roundup: Newly acquired body cameras provide accountability for police, public

It didn’t take long for the Homewood Police Department’s new purchase of body cameras to make an impact.

The department purchased the body cameras in early February and started regularly using them Feb. 12. Then, on Feb. 13, officers responded to a shots fired call at the Motel 6 on Vulcan Road.

Police body camera footage showed an officer responding to the scene at Motel 6. He ran up to the scene and saw a group of eyewitnesses to the crime surrounding a man who was bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. The officer then applied a tourniquet above the victim’s wound before the victim was transported to UAB with life-threatening injuries.

Meanwhile, three or four other Homewood police officers pursued the suspect, Laderrius Travon Hollis, who was in his vehicle. After Hollis crashed his car on Green Springs Highway, the officers began to chase him on foot. With the help of the Birmingham Police Department, the officers set a perimeter and were able to take Hollis into custody.

And it was all caught on footage.

“We would have never had any of this before,” Sgt. John Carr said.

The Homewood Police Department has had cameras in its police cars since the ’90s. However, car cameras can’t cover everything. In the Feb. 13 incident, car footage would have missed the Homewood police officer applying a tourniquet. If the officers only had cameras in their cars, footage also wouldn’t have been recorded of officers chasing Hollis on foot.

“You’re getting multiple video angles from multiple officers chasing this subject, and you get to see the apprehension of the suspect on video,” Carr said. “That’s a level of protection for us and sometimes the suspect. It’s like, ‘We’re not going to beat you up. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re not going to use force when it’s not necessary. And this video camera that’s on our body is going to show that.’ It reaffirms what we’ve been doing, and it shows the public that our guys and girls are working, serving the citizens of Homewood, and they’re doing it the right way.”

The purchase of the body cameras has been a priority for the department for years, Carr said. The issue was always cost.

Not only are the cameras expensive, but the long-term cost is in data storage. The camera turns on as soon as an officer turns on his police lights in his car, and the officer can’t turn it off. Additionally, the video can’t be deleted from the system. This adds up to a lot of data storage space.

In December, the Homewood City Council approved the spending $75,222 for 35 body cameras, plus one year of data storage. There will be a recurring annual cost of $16,700 for the data storage, Police Chief Tim Ross said at the council meeting.

The footage helps with more than just accountability for officers and citizens. For one, it can allow the department to celebrate the things they did well.

“No one would have ever known that officer put on a tourniquet and saved that person’s life,” Carr said. “That officer’s probably going to win an award, and now the chief can see it.”

The cameras also help capture evidence. Imagine you’re applying a tourniquet and trying to save someone’s life — you might be so focused on that one task that you can’t take in other details of the scene. But for this officer, for example, he was able to capture witness identities with his body camera (witnesses of a shooting will often flee the scene, Carr said).

Last, the video captured from police body cameras will be helpful for training purposes, Carr said. The department can review the Feb. 13 footage and discuss what the officer did right and what he could have done differently.

The department has plans to expand this program in the future, Carr said. Officers currently have to share the 35 cameras and check them out of the system. If the department purchases 30 additional cameras in the future, each officer will have his or her own camera. This will help officers start and end their shift more efficiently, Carr said.

The department also plans to integrate the program with the police vehicles. The body cameras aren’t compatible with the dash cameras, so now all car footage is captured from the officer’s body camera. Carr said he hopes to bring back vehicle cameras in the future.

“We’re happy we got them, and we’re really hoping we can get more next year,” Carr said. “We know that budgets are tight right now, and we understand that, but we want to be on par with the other departments.”