One Month After Rollout, A Look at Lansdale Police Department’s Body-Worn Camera Program

In the wake of the George Floyd killing at the hands of members of the Minneapolis Police Department in May 2020, many police departments across the country were left scurrying to develop and implement their own body-worn camera programs as public outcry against racial injustice reached a fever pitch.

While the Lansdale Borough Police Department was among those looking to invest into such a system, they also had an advantage in having already broached the topic in the months prior to Floyd’s death.

“As we were going through our due diligence, the events involving George Floyd occurred,” said Lansdale Mayor Garry Herbert. “At that point, we felt that we had compiled enough information regarding implementing a body camera system, and we decided together that it was time to take action on what we had been discussing.”

Lansdale Police Chief Michael Trail, who previously implemented the department’s dash-cam system after being named chief in February 2018, said research into the body-worn camera systems began in February 2020, and internal discussions had advanced regarding what the cost of implementing such a system would be in the months that followed.

“One of the main issues we had to look at was cost,” said Trail. “For large departments that have had high visibility incidents that reflected negatively towards the department, these [body cam] systems have been great.”

Trail added, however, that there are differences between large city police departments and smaller, suburban departments who have clearly finite funding.

“[For us], there’s a lot of cost, and we don’t have that kind of adversarial relationship with our community,” said Trail. “So, we’re always looking at where we could best direct our funds.”

Then, Floyd’s death occurred, dominating news coverage and triggering protests and riots across the country and world.

“After the murder of George Floyd, it was clear that this technology — as controversial as it is — would help us in a critical incident,” Trail said. “It was time…it was really time. It wasn’t reflexive, however. It’s important for our community to know that we didn’t run out and buy cameras to say ‘Look. We’re kind and transparent.’ We already saw the technology as having value, but it took the George Floyd incident to say now is the time. Once we saw his murder — which we all watched graphically on television — we knew it was time to make sure that we were documenting what was happening in our police department, as well.”

The cost of purchasing a camera for each officer in the department — 28 total — along with the first year of cloud-based storage for uploading video came to approximately $58,000, Trail said. There would also be a recurring fee for storage priced at approximately $26,000 per-year, Herbert added.

Trail said the department was able to find significant savings via reduced overtime, as the coronavirus pandemic had brought to an end all of the annual borough events that typically mark the spring, summer and fall. With those savings and approval from Borough Council, the department made the investment and began to plan out the implementation of the system.

“There’s no way that you can escape what happened in 2020 as a member of law enforcement,” Trail said. “That was absolutely the period that we needed to understand that it’s time to change things.”

Designing A Comprehensive System

With the purchase made, Herbert said the department had to also make both physical and technical improvements to their building, as well as their existing informational technology (IT) infrastructure. In fact, as the implementation of the new system progressed, they ended up having to overhaul to an entirely new IT system — one that could handle multiple sources of data and the associated bandwidth for uploading high-definition video to the cloud.

As the tech-side began to take shape, Herbert said he quickly became excited about the sophistication involved in the system’s ability to secure, upload and display video. By going with the same vendor as Trail used for the department’s dash-cam system, the body-cam system could be fully integrated with the latter, giving police a nearly unprecedented ability to review incidents from multiple officers and angles. For instance, if four officers arrive to an incident in four vehicles and that incident is later reviewed, Trail would be able to seamlessly jump from person to person, camera to camera with a click of the mouse.

“It’s an exciting time to be a part of this,” said Herbert. “I believe this is a very important moment in policing for a lot of reasons, but it’s exciting to be a part of the deployment of something like this.”

Another feature is that the operation of the system is designed for ease of use for the officers. When heading into the field, police simply have to grab the camera from a rack near the exit and place it on the bracket on their uniform. When the emergency lights in their vehicle are turned on, both the body-cam and dash-cams automatically begin recording, and upon returning to the motor pool, the data from both cameras automatically begins uploading through a WIFI hotspot before the officer exits their vehicle.

There is also a manual on/off switch, which officers can use at their discretion. Such instances would include when talking to a victim, when assisting emergency medical personnel, when on their break or personal time or when they’re operating in a non-investigation capacity.

“Our policy is very sensitive to those situations where the camera might not need to be on,” said Trail. “It’s always on for initial contact during an investigation, and if its leading to arrest, the camera remains on. If its administrative situation, a report or nothing, the officers do have the discretion to turn them off.”

Critical Incidents, Quality Control and Privacy

While the goal of the installation of the body-worn camera system is to increase transparency, there are several other benefits — including quality control and training opportunities — that will also aid the department.

Trail said supervisors will randomly audit several videos per month to ensure compliance of the department’s procedures and training, loosely comparing it to how corporations may record phone calls to ensure their quality control standards.

“We are a service-oriented business. We deliver a service to the community,” said Trail. “This is a way that we can document that service, and make corrections as needed. We’re all humans, and that means we’re fallible. With this system, we can find those issues, address them and correct as needed.”

Additionally, Lansdale Police now have documentation should a resident lodge a complaint against the department.

“If someone files a complaint, Chief Trail has the ability to use the system to review what occurred,” said Herbert. “That’s an option that wasn’t available to us a few months ago.”

“This job is about trust and accountability to the community,” Trail added. “I think we’re in a great position in regard to our relationship with the community, and that’s not something that has happened by accident. At the same time, we’re only as good as our last day, and the good will we have received through the years could be gone in a minute. That’s why we have to continue to make efforts to ensure that our community is receiving the best quality of service.”

But for Right to Know advocates or those seeking the frequent release of footage, hopes are dashed by the fact that the department is not required to release the footage.

“If a critical incident occurs, where the community needs reassurance or understanding and the context of the video can help to reassure them, we have the discretion to release it,” said Trail. “I understand the magnitude of what that means, but we are not obligated to release video to every person who makes a request for it.”

Trail, who in recent months also reduced the release of mugshots for those charged with certain types of crimes, said he is an advocate of the Fourth Amendment and considers himself to be “very pro-privacy.” Additionally, Trail has raised the issue of how making booking images and video available publicly — and especially online — can lead to the stigmatization of those who are attempting to return to a productive life.

“If our goal is to get someone back to being a productive member of society, then reducing the stigma associated with the event should also be a priority,” Trail said.

Positive Early Returns

With the system online and functional for a little more than a month, Trail and Herbert said it already paid dividends following a recent incident involving a juvenile with a weapon on West Main Street.

Last month, multiple police units converged onto the 400 block of West Main Street for a report of a juvenile with a handgun. Police held the juvenile at gunpoint, but were subsequently able to take the teen into custody without issue.

The “handgun” turned out to be a BB gun made to appear as a real firearm, police said.

Due to the nature of the incident, Trail and Herbert reviewed the footage of the incident to evaluate the performance of the officers on scene. Low and behold, Trail, who was also on scene, said that during the review he found himself slightly out of position, and with a small adjustment, he could have secured a better tactical advantage on scene.

Trail said he’s since made note of it, and will make the correction during future incidents.

“For us to pull a training event out of a video review in the first few months of the program tells us that this is exactly what we were looking for in implementing the body cam system,” said Herbert.

See also:

Body Cam Footage Shows Police Officers Saving Horse From Barn Fire In Hilltown Township

Driver Having Seizure Saved by Police on County Line Road (VIDEO)

Mayoral Musings: Prioritizing Transparency By Adopting Body-Worn Cameras

Lansdale Borough Takes Community Approach To Policing

Hundreds Attend Peaceful Rally In Support Of George Floyd In Lansdale, Police Show Their Support