Sheriff’s deputies testing them out
Murphy – Town police officers are preparing to begin wearing body cameras after the new year.
The Murphy Police Department received a $24,480 grant from the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission to purchase 10 body cameras and 10 patrol car laptops earlier this year. For the next five years, the police department must budget $8,000 annually to cover digital storage and other fees associated with body camera use.
In the application for the no-match grant funds, officials reported that town police are dealing with an increasing number of calls, attributed to population and commercial growth. Officials reported a 10 percent increase in service calls from 2017-18 and wrote that the “2.6-square-mile area that encompasses Murphy, along with our census population, is a red herring to anyone” evaluating this service area.
The application credits Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino & Hotel for the increase in traffic and congestion on the roads. The grant funds will enhance efforts to make the police department more efficient, while also protecting officers and community members from harm, officials say.
“Twenty-one years ago, they had more people [on the force] than we do today, but we’re answering four times as many calls now,” Police Chief Justin Jacobs told the Cherokee Scout.
The grant application lists four objectives for using body cameras:
- reduction in crime rate;
- improving the efficiency of the police department;
- decreasing the number of fraudulent complaints against police officers;
- increasing the number of successful DWI court cases.
The cameras continuously record but do not save the video until activated. Once activated, the cameras retain the previous two minutes of video.
“And if we take our taser or our firearm out, the body camera automatically turns on,” Jacobs said. “So in a heated incident, you’re not
Sheriff’s office
In addition, cameras worn by fellow officers and deputies automatically activate when they show up to a scene where an officer has initiated video recording. Patrol deputies with the sheriff’s office have been testing body cameras for about a year.
Cherokee County purchased 18 body cameras in August 2019 for a total of $15,503, which includes software and digital storage. Beginning in the 2021 fiscal year, the county pays $11,400.96 annually for software license and storage.
“Recording what we do and having a visual representation makes good officers better. It may also help some people control their actions and not let their emotions get away from them,” Sheriff Derrick Palmer said, adding that cameras also keep the public in check. “When the public sees you wearing a body camera, they’re less likely to file bogus complaints.”
Palmer said the downside to body cameras is that they only capture what’s happening in front of an officer and may not record an event behind them that spawned a specific action.
“You get a one perspective point of view,” he said.
Video not public record
Murphy police expect to begin wearing body cameras in January after the manufacturer helps the department set up the storage system. The department will then have a trial period before it becomes mandatory for officers to wear them during specific events.
However, citizens shouldn’t expect to have access to the body camera footage because state law says the head of the custodial law enforcement agency may only disclose a recording to the following video:
- A person whose image or voice is in the recording.
- A personal representative of an adult person whose image or voice is in the recording, if the adult person has consented to the disclosure.
- A personal representative of a minor or of an adult person under lawful guardianship whose image or voice is in the recording.
- A personal representative of a deceased person whose image or voice is in the recording.
- A personal representative of an adult person who is incapacitated and unable to provide consent to disclosure.
“In North Carolina, body camera and dash cam footage are not public records,” Palmer said.
“We have the ability to bring someone in to show them the footage, but we can’t release it under public records law.”