Lake Forest Park Police discontinue use of body cameras

By Police Chief Steve Sutton

With the recent events involving police use of force occurring around the country, I wanted to provide the Lake Forest Park Community with an update on the use of body cameras here by your police force.

The Lake Forest Park PD has been using the body worn cameras off and on for several years. Prior to my coming on as chief, they had actually stopped using them completely.

The reason is multifaceted: Aging technology, time to upload video, digital storage, perceived change in working environment with Police Guild Members (right to bargain), unclear policy, etc. Once I arrived, I met with the Guild to develop policy language that would facilitate the use of the cameras once again.  

Recently, I gained support from the Mayor’s office to purchase new equipment and cloud storage technology that would enable the best possible product and would be very efficient with my officers time.

Instead of purchasing the new equipment however, I have actually just ordered our officers to stop using the cameras. There are many issues that have popped up recently regarding 4th Amendment rights of our citizens and unanswered questions regarding large public disclosure requests that would bury an agency our size. 

Without question, I believe that body-worn cameras offer a number of positive benefits, including:

• Resolving criminal cases faster;
• Resolving complaints against an officer faster (overwhelmingly justifying the actions of the officer);
• Improving the behavior of officers wearing body cams;
• Improving the behavior of the public (so long as they know they’re being recorded); and
• Improving public trust in law enforcement. 

While body cameras offer a number of benefits, the existing state of our public records law hurts law enforcement agencies that seek to implement this technology.

Legislation is needed to strike an appropriate balance between transparency and accountability without enabling voyeurism and commercial exploitation.

During this next legislative session in Olympia, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police will be working a Bill that will address the current issues. Until the time in which I believe our City can support a law that is appropriate, the body worn cameras will not be used again here in Lake Forest Park. However we are looking forward to a time in which they are used again.  

Here are a couple of recent news stories that are applicable: 

• Costly public-records requests may threaten SPD plan for body camera
• Bremerton Police stop using body cameras because anonymous person requested every single video ever recorded

Thank you all for your overwhelming support of the Lake Forest Park Police Department