David Michael Miller
Madison Common Council President Syed Abbas thinks it’s finally time to launch a pilot program that would equip Madison officers at the North Police District with body-worn cameras. Abbas plans on introducing a resolution at the council’s Dec. 7 meeting that would set the program in motion.
“I do think the community wants body-worn cameras for our officers, at least to try them out with this pilot program,” says Abbas. “I think it will be a really good start for us to collect data and see how it goes.”
After referral to committees, Abbas hopes the resolution will be before the full council for final approval sometime in 2022, some seven years after the city began weighing the pros and cons of body-worn cameras for the police.
The debate started with the now-dissolved Community Policing and Body Camera Ad Hoc Committee, which voted against a body-worn camera pilot program in 2015. Isthmus wrote in November 2017 about how Madison was bucking a statewide trend of communities outfitting police with the technology.
In December 2017, a top-to-bottom review of the Madison Police Department conducted by the California-based OIR Group suggested reconsidering a pilot program for body cams after getting input from community stakeholders. That eventually led to the creation of the Police Body-Worn Camera Feasibility Review Committee in April 2020.
The feasibility committee released its final report in January 2021 after consulting with a multitude of community groups and analyzing research about police body cams in other cities. The 52-page report details concerns over potential misuse and unintended consequences of the technology, and the cost of outfitting the entire police force with body-worn cameras — estimated at nearly $1.5 million in startup costs and $376,000 annually. Ultimately, the feasibility committee supported a pilot program at one of the department’s precincts with caveats to curb potential problems. Their recommendation is essentially what was proposed and rejected in 2015.
The recent report from the Quattrone Center, which analyzed the police department’s response to the 2020 protests, might provide new motivaton for body cams. The report recommends the city outfit officers with body cameras as a way to provide better transparency when police actions are called into question. Chief Shon Barnes calls the technology “a must” for the department.
When the city council took up the feasibility committee’s report in July 2021, Ald. Juliana Bennett proposed an amendment to kill the pilot program. The council voted 10-9 to reject the amendment, allowing the pilot program to — one day —move forward. The new resolution from Abbas will put it to a vote sometime next year.
Despite tepid support from alders so far, Abbas is optimistic that (some) Madison officers will be wearing body cams next year; $83,000 was included in the 2021 capital budget to buy the cameras so most of the funding is already in place.
“Now is the time to move forward with the pilot program,” says Abbas. “I believe the votes will be there.”
