The Baltimore Sun has received the first body camera recording from Baltimore police’s new pilot program, which has trained and equipped 150 officers with the equipment and ends today. The captured encounter—a traffic stop and suspended license—is mundane, but it represents a step forward in holding police accountable, especially in Baltimore, which is known for a long history of looking the other way on police misconduct and for a police culture that resisted body cameras. And hell, when it comes to police encounters, mundane is good. The Baltimore Sun reports:
The video from Nov. 2, obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a Maryland Public Information Act request, is the first footage from a Baltimore police body camera to be viewed publicly. More than 150 officers in east, west and central Baltimore began wearing body cameras at the end of October as part of a pilot program that will test three different types of the camera technology before the department selects a single vendor to provide cameras to officers throughout the city under a permanent program next year. The pilot program lasts through Friday.
The footage and audio received by the Sun are clear. Nothing is blurred. (The Sun is blurring the image of the person captured on the video to protect her privacy). Officers appear to have the ability to begin recording video before they activate audio recording.
The launch of the pilot program reflects a national trend toward equipping law enforcement officers with cameras amid heightened scrutiny of police actions, particularly in urban and predominantly African American communities like Baltimore.
This pilot program is especially important after the developments in the trials of the officers charged with Freddie Gray’s death, as Judge Barry G. Williams declared the trial of William Porter, the first officer tried, to be a mistrial and has not yet decided on a retrial. Body cameras would have provided crucial evidence that has been lacking in the jury’s decision-making process. While it is important to note that they do not solve the policing problem, they have been powerful tools in increasing charges and convictions for officers who engage in brutality.
