SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Police Department is reviewing the policies and procedures necessary to implement a program that would allow officers to wear video cameras.
The cameras would record all of their interactions with the public. Those recordings could then be used as evidence in court.
“In the not too distant future, I think we’ll be able to see police reports and everything documented. Why would we have an officer recount what a victim or a suspect has told you in an interview when we can say ‘Here’s the video. This is what their expression was, this is what their emotion was and this is the physical evidence that you saw on their body,” Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank said in a board meeting Tuesday.
The department is sharing their plans with defense attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and its own civilian review board.
Burbank said the recordings produced by the cameras would be stored and maintained by a third party. The video files would be stamped with the date, time and the name of the officer involved.
