The controversy surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri in August, has motivated the Syracuse University Department of Public Safety to invest in body cameras for its officers.

DPS has been discussing the possibility of body cameras for several years and has recently started looking at what types of body cameras would be best for its officers to wear, said Donna Adams, DPS associate director for administrative and technical services.

Some of the body cameras are small and resemble pins. Other body cameras are bigger in size and look like the microphones on radios, Adams said. Once DPS decides on the type of body camera to utilize, officers will then run tests on the cameras for two to three months. DPS hopes to implement a permanent body camera policy next semester if the trials are successful, Adams said.

“If a complaint is made, we want to be able to have video and audio recordings in order to provide evidence of what really happened,” Adams said.

Some SU students, like Kendra Michalak, a freshman psychology major, are concerned that the body cameras would create privacy violations.

“The DPS officers could follow someone around and video tape them without them knowing. That’s not right,” Michalak said.

If DPS decides to have its officers wear body cameras, a policy statement will be made that will require the officers to announce that they are recording video and/or audio before they address the person in a particular situation, Adams said.

Nicole Leadbeater, a sophomore public relations and marketing dual major, said she thinks having body cameras for DPS officers is a good idea, and will provide more accuracy.

“I don’t see a problem as long as you are aware of them recording you,” she said. “I mean the DPS officers are also being recorded by the body cameras so their actions are being monitored as well.”

For more sensitive situations, DPS officers will turn off their body cameras, Adams said.

“In general I think it’s a good idea even though we don’t have a lot of problems with DPS officers not doing their jobs,” said Emily Magnifico, a freshman magazine journalism and anthropology dual major. “However, the camera’s on/off switch is questionable. When can they turn them off? How do we know they are turned off?”

Adams said instances of police brutality or corruption now spread through social media, which often only gives a clip of the situation but not the full story.

“We don’t want the limited context and that’s why we have chosen to try using body cameras,” Adams said. “We are not alone in this endeavor. Many other police and law enforcement agencies are moving toward the same thing.”

Published on October 20, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann