DALTON – Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer nearly five years ago in Ferguson, Mo.

His death sparked protests and raised questions about police officers use of force across the country. 

A grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot Brown and the federal Justice Department cleared the officer of any civil rights violations.

But many still questioned what happened that day. Some activists, including Brown’s family, urged law-enforcement agencies to equip officers with body cameras, often called body-worn cameras.

Today, agencies across the SunLight Project area, which includes Dalton, Moultrie, Milledgeville, Thomasville, Tifton and Valdosta, use body cameras. Both officers and civil rights activists report body cameras improve trust and transparency.

Watching Eye

Since law-enforcement officers in Colquitt County have been wearing body cameras, the impact has been noticeable, said representatives from the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office and Moultrie Police Department.

Body cameras can even have a calming effect on some situations, they said. 

For example, when an officer responds to a dispute where people’s tempers are frayed, the realization the encounter is being recorded can cause a significant attitude adjustment.

“In many instances, the video camera has helped prevent an incident from escalating,” said Lt. Randy Stephens of the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office. “They realize they’re being videoed.”

About 40 officers — including all road patrol deputies, drug agents and some criminal investigation division personnel — wear the cameras, which cost about $300 each, Stephens said. 

One camera is assigned to the jail to monitor when an officer has to go into an inmate’s area to respond to a fight or other situation.

Cameras can help officers in situations that are minor — such as documenting a deputy defending himself against an aggressive dog while serving a court paper — to a situation where a police officer fired his weapon.

While cameras are equipped with infrared technology to record in low-light conditions, officers do not use them to record nighttime encounters because the idea is to record what the officer can see in a particular situation, officers said.

Cameras can be a final arbiter when a member of the public files a complaint against an officer.

In one instance, Stephens said, a woman who had received a speeding ticket came to the sheriff’s office and reported the deputy had acted unprofessionally and used vulgar language during the traffic stop. When invited to watch the video of the encounter, the woman got up and left without saying a word because she realized it would show her version to be false.

Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Paul Woods said deputies feel the body cams have improved community trust in the department.

“Deputies do feel by having BWCs shows additional transparency and accountability to the community,” he said.

Tifton Police Chief Buddy Dowdy said cameras are popular with officers because when there is a complaint about an officer’s conduct, rather than it being “he said/she said,” the department can go back and look at the footage captured on the body camera.

Dowdy said body cams are one of the best tools available to officers. They improve police-civilian interaction and they can help solve crimes.

Valdosta Police Chief Leslie Manahan mentioned a 2014 murder case where a shooting victim’s description of the shooter was caught on a police body cam before he died. 

The recorded description provided key evidence during the trial, the chief said. 

The suspect was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Budget Concerns

The Dalton Police Department and the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office are headquartered in the same city, but they have two different approaches to body cameras.

The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office introduced body cams back in 2013 for its narcotics division.

“In November 2018, the sheriff’s office implemented BWCs for the patrol division, uniformed patrol deputies,” Capt. Paul Woods said.

But the Dalton Police Department has just nine body cams, one of which doesn’t work, said Bruce Frazier, department spokesman.

“There are currently only two to three that are in use in the field, and I believe those are being used by officers who requested/volunteered to use and continue to test them,” Frazier said.

He said the department has explored the possibility of issuing body cams to officers, most recently in 2016

But he said department leaders “found the concept too cost prohibitive due to the costs associated with storage of the videos, maintenance of the equipment and staff to handle the videos.”

He provided cost estimates from Taser (now Axon) that showed a five-year cost of equipping the department’s officers ranging from $200,451 to $336,590 depending on the number of cameras (60 to 72) and amount of storage the department purchased.

Frazier said the cost estimates “do not include salary for additional evidence staff that we’d likely need to add to handle classification of the different video files into relevant/non-relevant categories and to manage retention of those videos.”

Woods said the sheriff’s office has a five-year contract with Axon at $673,683.85 that includes 70 body cams, 35 vehicle cameras, unlimited storage, maintenance of the cameras, free replacement and free upgrades during the five-year period.

Woods said the sheriff’s office did not have to hire any additional staff to manage retention of the videos.

Thomasville Police Chief Troy Rich said the average cost of a Thomasville Police Department body-worn camera is $1,000. The server that stores the video is approximately $8,000.

In 2017, the Thomasville department received 25 new body-worn cameras and new portable radios at no cost as part of an upgrade in the Motorola radio system project.

“This new technology cost approximately $250,000 and included free video storage for five years,” Rich said.

Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said the agency’s current cost of running its “cloud” body cams is about $150,000 a year.

Whitfield County NAACP President Michael Kelly said he thinks both the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office and the Dalton Police Department have fine officers and hasn’t noticed their differing approaches to body cams affecting the reputation of either department.

“I haven’t heard anyone say they are treated differently by one because they have cameras and the other doesn’t,” he said. “But everyone I’ve talked to is in favor of officers having cameras. If there’s any question about what happened, the camera can provide a pretty straightforward answer. I think it protects citizens and it protects officers.”

Asked how much cost should play in whether a department adopts cameras, Kelly said “that’s a tough question to answer.”

“I think you’d have to look at the totality of how money is being spent,” he said. “Is $400,000 or $500,000 worth spending to protect lives? Absolutely. But can we also use $400,000 to invest in our school system and protect lives by educating our youth? Absolutely. 

“Can we protect lives by investing that money in ways to help our homeless population? Absolutely. I’m always in favor of investing money in the areas that will have the largest impact.”

Department Policies

Georgia law sets certain minimum standards for law-enforcement agencies that do use body cams in terms of maintaining video shot by those cameras.

Video must be maintained for at least 180 days from the recording date with two exceptions. 

If the video “is part of a criminal investigation, shows a vehicular accident, shows the detainment or arrest of an individual, or shows a law-enforcement officer’s use of force,” it must be maintained for at least 30 months from the date of recording, according to Georgia law.

And if the video “contains evidence that is or can reasonably be anticipated to be necessary for pending litigation,” it must also be maintained for at least 30 months.

If there is a lawsuit where the video may be evidence, it must be maintained until the final adjudication of that lawsuit.

According to the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office written policy, deputies are allowed to watch video from body cams to “assist with writing a report, supplement, memorandum, or prior to making a statement about an incident.”

Thomasville officers are allowed to watch body camera video before making statements if their actions are under investigation.

“Officers are involved in situations that are rapidly evolving and require split-second decisions based on the totality of the situation that are evolving in front of them,” Chief Rich said. “Officers should have the benefit of being able to review video to get all of the facts so they are accurate in the report writing and statements.”

Tifton Chief Dowdy said his department’s officers are allowed to watch their own footage. He said they have access to it and it can help with report writing and can be used as evidence.

In addition to Charles Oliver, SunLight Project reporters Terry Richards, Patti Dozier, Eve Copeland-Brechbiel, Kevin Hall contributed to this report.