Costa Mesa Police will soon begin wearing body cameras, after officials approve $1M contract

By Sara CardineStaff Writer

June 23, 2020 6:51 PM PT

Costa Mesa Police Department officers will soon wear body cameras able to record audio and video footage of traffic stops, arrests and interactions with the public, after City Council members approved spending nearly $1 million on a cloud-based monitoring system.

In doing so, Costa Mesa joins several Orange County cities where such cameras are already in use. In recent years, the cities of Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana and Fullerton have adopted officer-worn camera programs.

For the record:

5:19 p.m. Aug. 3, 2020An earlier version of this story misstated that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has been wearing body camera devices for about a year. The department has completed two pilot programs and has a draft plan and schedule for implementation of the body-worn camera project, but deputies have not yet been outfitted with the devices on a permanent basis.

In Irvine, the City Council was set to hear a similar proposal Tuesday evening.

Costa Mesa Police Chief Bryan Glass said a plan to upgrade the department’s current system — 46 in-car video systems and wearable audio-recording devices for most sworn officers — was well underway when demonstrations against racial inequality and police brutality broke out in late May.

“We were already looking at improving upon the system we had or replacing it,” the police chief said of the aging audio and video systems purchased in 2013. “We saw [body cameras] as a useful tool for our everyday duties.”

Council members budgeted $883,520 in the current fiscal year for the needed upgrade and during a June 16 meeting adjusted funding upward by $113,760 after a vendor had been selected.

Texas-based video security company WatchGuard, Inc. will provide 60 high-definition in-car video units and 100 wearable camera sets, in addition to accessories, redaction software, maintenance and support, according to the contract.

Costa Mesa officers have been recording video footage since 1998, when cumbersome VHS tapes had to be taken indoors and viewed on VCRs. Audio-recording devices helped provide some mobility outside patrol vehicles, but not much.

Glass said the new dash cams will provide panoramic views from patrol cars and provide backseat footage that will aid in investigations. The body cams will be rolling as officers exit their vehicles, a capability that was stunted in earlier iterations.

“Now, we’ll have the ability to walk away from the cars with the same transmitters and capture what we’re seeing leaving the unit,” he said.

Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said the new devices will aid transparency and benefit community members and officers as information is captured in a cloud-based management system.

Data can be used not only as evidence in an investigation but as a record of public testimony, she said.

“If somebody makes a complaint, we can see what happened,” Foley said. “That’s protective of both the individual who alleges the conduct as well as police officers.”

The appetite for officer-worn cameras, however, is hardly universal. In Los Angeles County, supervisors on Tuesday again requested the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department immediately implement a monitoring program after eight years of cajoling.

Supervisors recommended body cameras in 2012 and set aside $34.78 million last September to equip 5,200 sheriff’s deputies and security officers with the devices yet have seen little progress. In a release issued Tuesday, supervisors called the program “long overdue.”

“In discussions about law enforcement accountability and greater transparency, which, frankly come amid nationwide unrest over police brutality and use of deadly force, implementation of body-worn cameras must be a priority for LASD,” Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas said in the release. “We ask they meet our efforts and do the same — to make this program a reality.”

Sheriff Alex Villanueva responded, promising to roll out a program later this year.

Like the city of Costa Mesa, Irvine has for years used dash-cam units and wearable audio recorders, according to spokeswoman Sgt. Karie Davies.

Davies said officials had been planning an overhaul of their computer-aided dispatch and records management system and planning to purchase officer-worn cameras when the protests began.

After public demonstrations began raising awareness around police accountability — and following criticisms of comments made by Mayor Christina Shea in support of the city’s police force — Chief Mike Hamel decided to expedite the body camera program.

“We already had a budget for a body-worn camera pilot program for next year, but we decided to move up that date given the current situation,” Hamel said by email Tuesday. “Body-worn cameras are the next step in our evolution to memorialize contacts with the public, while enhancing public trust and accountability.”

Irvine council members will vote Tuesday night on whether to support a program and will eventually decide the scope and cost, Davies said.

Huntington Beach resident Michael Graves, who recently moved from Costa Mesa, said he supports body cams as a means of honestly recording the actions of law enforcement officers but urges caution when monitoring the monitors.

“Body cams protect both civilians and cops,” the 29-year-old commercial plumber said Tuesday. “But I also believe if an officer is caught turning it off or maybe it was never on, that officer needs to be disciplined harshly. There have been way too many instances of body cam footage that goes missing, or the body cam was never on — that’s unacceptable.”

Glass said he anticipates Costa Mesa Police Department’s program will be fully implemented by the end of the year.

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Costa Mesa Police will soon begin wearing body cameras, after officials approve $1M contract

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