Success Stories 2

Success Stories

Warminster Township Police Department

This is our first reporting period of the program. We have had body cameras for the last few years, and with their success as well as the changes in what is required of police and transparency, we are looking to keep this program going and growing. With the help of this grant, we hope to continue to grow the program as well as refurbish and replace aging BWC units and supporting equipment so that our officers can have reliable cameras that stand up to the rigors of the job. Since starting our BWC program, we have been able to release video to the press showing the heroic actions of officers in different situations. In addition, we have been able to review videos involving a possible complaint and many times this has cleared up the incident on the spot. The body cameras have helped our patrol supervisors review things that they may not have otherwise seen when it pertains to their officers. It has helped them identify potential areas of improvement an officer may need in various areas from officer safety, to procedural justice etc. The body cameras have also been vital in assisting and demonstrating to command staff and front line supervisors the good work the officers are performing on a daily basis.

Warren County Sheriff’s Office

We had an incident involving one of our deputies and an armed citizen that was upset with Spectrum Network employees being on his property to run new cabling. The incident quickly escalated, and the man stormed back into his house, and he pulled his handgun off of his hip. The deputy believed the armed man was going to shoot at him, and the deputy got in his cruiser and quickly left the scene. The video allowed us to review the incident and identify some key areas that the deputy could have verbally de-escalated the situation and/or taken cover behind some large trees. It also allowed the deputy to review the video and see that he became very tunnel-visioned during the incident.

We have now created a remedial training form that our supervisors can fill out when they see a specific need for such training. The training director reviews the video and then prepares a remedial training plan to go over the incident with the deputy.
We have received many compliments from our deputies in the usefulness of the body worn cameras. Several have said that when they let people know during interactions that what they say and do is being recorded it seems to modify their behavior in a positive way. Additionally, the recordings have assisted in the gathering of evidence by recording statements and/or actions of those committing crimes.
We received a complaint on one of our officers when he was trying to help the complainant’s neighbor retrieve a package that had been delivered to the wrong address. The deputy was accused of startling the complainant out of bed by banging on their door, being rude, accusing them of stealing, and failing to even thank them for their time after they returned the misdelivered package.

After reviewing the BWC video, it was clear that the deputy never banged on their door. He first rung the doorbell and then after about 1 minute, lightly knocked on the door at about 8:00 PM at night. Once the complainant came to the door, the deputy apologized for disturbing them and explained that a package was accidentally delivered to their house and asked them to just check their packages. Once the complainant located the package, the deputy explained that their neighbor tried coming over to retrieve the package, but nobody came to the door, and they asked the police to help retrieve the package. The deputy then apologized for disturbing them again and thanked them for their time and effort. He was very professional, and the video refuted every accusation that the complainant sent in their email. Once the complainant was afforded the opportunity to review the video and we explained exactly what happened and what he said and did not say, they were satisfied and relayed they may have been mistaken in their recount of events.
We were investigating a murder when a neighbor came over and provided some witness statements of what she had observed about the suspect and how he was loading up a car. Her statements were very compelling and helpful. However, she said she did not want to get involved at all and did not want to provide her name. The video will be very helpful in court in the prosecution in placing the suspect at the scene of the crime.

Blair Police Dept

BWC footage was used to award officers who assisted victims of a bad accident.

Mountain View Police Department

On 10/21/2022, officers were involved in a use of force situation and conducted a search warrant. A citizen complaint was filed with accusations of excessive force. A body camera review of the incident showed that the officers were justified and did not use excess force.
On a well-being check call, a male subject assaulted an officer. The body cam footage captured the officer’s response and arrest of this individual. The footage showed the officer never lost control and displayed outstanding restraint and professionalism. With the ability to record this incident on video, our command staff was able to review the incident. This provides another level of transparency which will strengthen the public’s trust with law enforcement.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office

This month was our first SWAT deployment with the new helmet cameras purchased with the grant. This new camera type allows for a much better and more complete view of the action(s) officers are taking during an operation.

Roxana Police Dept

An officer was dispatched to a pedestrian walking alongside the roadway and yelling at passing vehicles. The officer arrived and contacted the individual, who was later determined to be mentally unstable. While talking with the pedestrian, the officer saw a knife concealed against the pedestrian’s forearm. The officer immediately called for backup officers, who responded. After several minutes of talking with the pedestrian, the officers were able to successfully detain the pedestrian and found two additional knives concealed in his clothing. After reviewing the body camera footage, the incident was reviewed by supervisors. The officers involved used appropriate force and tactics in resolving the incident peacefully and without further use of force.
An officer handled a mental health call along the highway for an individual having homicidal thoughts and wanting to kill an unknown person for a sex crime against a young female. The officer utilized his body worn camera and recorded the incident. The officer was able to get the individual to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. Approximately 11 days later, the same individual went to an adjacent county and killed a person. The investigating agency discovered our department had prior contact and requested a copy of the body worn camera for their investigation.

Belle Isle Police Department

A resident and his wife came to the police department to complain about a marine patrol officer. They said the officer was rude and unprofessional. The wife said they were considering going to complain to the review board. After more conversation, I invited them to watch the BWC footage. In the video, it was apparent the officer was polite and the resident was escalating the interaction by making inflammatory comments. The wife ultimately looked at her husband and said, “This is definitely not what you described to me.” They apologized, thanked me, and left.

Hopewell Township Police Department

I used camera footage to satisfy a citizen complaint that the citizen believed officers were too aggressive during a burglary in progress call. The citizen reported a door being kicked in.

After reviewing the footage, discussing how the 911 call came in and then reviewing the call, we concluded that all of the officer’s actions were justified. The citizen was satisfied.
A local news reporter called stated “I got a call from an attorney, a reputable attorney, that said his client has phone video of officers at her residence and she was not treated correctly, and she wanted to file a complaint against your officers.” The reporter continued and said, “Did you receive a complaint?” I stated, ”No, I had not.” She then asked,”Would you like to make a statement?” I responded, “I welcome her phone recording, and her official complaint, but we have in-car and body cam footage of their interaction that we can share, and if its found that she is filing a false report, charges will be filed.” I never heard anything back.

Chickasha Police Department

The video captured from BWCs is invaluable for investigative purposes and future prosecution. While we didn’t have any complaints or UOFs this month, various aggravated crimes are being investigated and evidence is being documented via the BWCs.
Three officers were involved in a single UOF. An officer’s BWC was dislodged as well as his OC spray. Due to the large distance covered in the foot chase and a fight that occurred in a leaf pile, it was difficult to recover the officer’s lost equipment. After reviewing the BWC footage, we were able narrow down the search to a 2-30 square feet area, and we were able to locate the equipment.
The success was NOT in this period but occurred on May 31, 2022. However the UOF/OIS incident was reviewed in this period. Video clearly helped confirm a suspect coming to his door with a weapon when the officer shot him. The BWC was able to capture what hand he had the weapon in and also confirmed it to be a long gun and not a handgun. The BWC also confirmed the suspect’s actions and the placement of many witnesses/victims who claimed things that were not truthful.
BWC have proven that the officers are performing their duties appropriately and they have recently helped to disprove a juvenile’s claim to his parent about excessive force.
BWC footage was used to dispel a past claim of excessive force.

Rumford Police Department

The BWC’s continue to not only provide supporting evidence to help with the prosecution of criminal cases, but they have also been an invaluable source of evidence to exonerate officers or corroborate officers’ version of events in alleged misconduct. The HD videos make complaint review and policy compliance a breeze.
BWC was used to capture an officer-involved shooting incident. Footage was extremely helpful in determining a justified use of deadly force to clear the officer and implicate the suspect.

Gerrish Township Police Department

We have just this month set up procedures and protocols to share our BWC footage for case review with our local Prosecutor’s Office that had not existed in the past. This allows for the Prosecuting Attorney to have all evidence in their possession even prior to pre-trials. This was not possible prior to our BWC grant initiative.
BWC captured video footage of two bikes that were used as part of a malicious destruction of property complaint. The officer was able to match the bikes from victim’s video showing the destruction of property and compare it to the BWC video taken when interviewing the suspect and the suspect’s garage, resulting in a closed case.
In another incident, a hit & run accident, the officer was able to remove BWC from his body and pan the victim’s face, clearly showing the injuries (shards of glass near his eyes and in his hair). The suspect was located and a report was submitted to the prosecutor’s office for criminal charges.

Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office

A BWC captured a spontaneous utterance in the jail from a suspect in an attempted homicide case for a local police department
The BWC system has been instrumental in addressing the four complaints we received in January which all came from the same individual who also suffers from known mental health issues and has accused staff of inappropriate actions. Having the BWCs has allowed us to review and address all four complaints through an objective lens and determine that they were all unfounded. The BWCs are a great asset to help ensure we are holding ourselves to a high standard of professional service to our community.
Success stories: A party called in complaining that our deputies had illegally entered a home on two occasions. In the first, body cams show our deputies on scene telling the other agency that we would not be entering the home unlawfully to assist them. In the second, another agency’s bodycams show that we were not part of the other entry of the home.
Multiple confessions on body cam have transpired throughout the month.
One deputy used his bodycam to find where he put an arrestee’s phone and wallet, which could have been lost without the ability to review.
We utilized camera footage to prove that no items were removed from a person prior to an M-1 transport.
We utilized camera footage to get a conviction for a traffic offensce in court.
In June of 2022, we had a complaint that an arrestee’s car was left unsecured after he was arrested. The arrestee said due to us not locking his car, multiple items were stolen. After a quick review of the body cam footage, the officer is seen locking the vehicle and checking all 4 doors and the trunk to make sure it was secure. The items that were described as stolen, one being a large suitcase on the back seat, are clearly not in the car at any point of the contact. This complaint was easily determined to be unfounded because of the use of body cams, and saved our agency hours of investigative work.
In June of 2022, we had an officer involved shooting, and a supervisor was able to live stream into the body cameras to monitor the situation as he was responding to the scene. Command staff was able to review the incident, corroborating the statements of officers on scene, immediately after arriving on scene. The body cam videos were uploaded and in the possession of the agency that is investigating the OIS as soon as they started the investigation.
In June of 2022, a deputy had misplaced a suspect’s car keys and was able to review his own body camera video to see where he had set the keys. This saved the deputy time in looking for the keys and saved the agency money by not being responsible for replacing the keys.
In December 2022, our body worn cameras assisted in successfully investigating and reporting a felony domestic violence incident. This key tool allowed us to lock a person into a statement stating they were feloniously assaulted. However this was directly contradicted by footage taken from the reported suspect. The reported suspect’s footage was captured on our body worn cameras and compared to the statements made by the reported victim. This footage captured by our cameras will be vital evidence in the prosecution of the caller for filing a false report.

Baxley Police Department

Officer Gardner was able to go back and watch an earlier interview that included inactionable information at the time,and use it with new information received to aid in securing a search warrant in a narcotics investigation.

Saco Police Department

Utilizing the BWC camera footage, we were able to exonerate our employees in two citizen complaints.

Yukon Police Department

While a search warrant was being served at a residence, a neighbor approached the residence and was asked to leave. The neighbor made a complaint about the police talking “aggressive” to him. After reviewing the body cam video, the neighbor’s complaint was deemed unfounded.
We took a complaint from a driver who claimed that an officer was rude and a bully. The supervisor that took the complaint told the driver that he would look at the body cam video to confirm the complaint. The driver stated that looking at the body cam video was not necessary, because it could be interpreted different than how the driver remembered it. The driver no longer wants to file a complaint.

Another complaining party stated that one of our officers failed to inventory items and took items from her vehicle during a traffic stop. After watching the body cam video, it was discovered that the officer never took any items out of her car.
On 10/3/22, Sergeant Clay Rush was dispatched to a house where it was reported an infant was choking. When Sgt. Rush arrived, he immediately came into contact with the infant and the frantic grandmother. The infant was not breathing so Sergeant Rush administered back blows to the infant until the obstruction became loose and the infant was able to begin breathing again. The incident was caught on body cam video.

Parlier Police Department

A formal complaint was made against an officer wherein the citizen said that the officer was cruel to her and even said that the officer, “treated me like a dog.” She took the complaint to social media. When reviewing the encounter of the actual stop, we found that the officer was entirely professional and treated her with fairness and respect. Had we not had the cameras, this officer’s career could have been tainted because she was offended for being checked for a DUI.

Maple Heights Police Department

We unfortunately had an officer-involved shooting where the body worn camera showed the suspect with a gun in his hand pointed at the officer, prior to shooting. The BWC footage will be crucial throughout the subsequent investigation.

West Point Police Department

The use of our cameras have been significant while interacting with the public. We are very thankful that you all helped us obtain these cameras. They are very much needed.

Pell City Police Department

Because the BWC’s have realtime GPS when recording, I was able to find one that fell off during a foot chase.
Over the weekend, one of my officers lost their BWC in a large, densely wooded area while pursuing a suspect. Due to the realtime GPS capabilities of these cameras, I was able to walk another officer directly over to it from several hundred yards away. Had an officer been injured and unconscious, we would have been able to quickly find him/her.

Hollis Police Department

Review of body worn camera footage revealed the actions of an officer attempting to resuscitate a person through CPR. Due to the officer’s efforts, the patient lived for some time, which provided the family with a chance to say goodbye to their loved one.

Niagara Town Police Department

On January 18th, 2023, one of my officers arrived at a possible burglary in progress. While checking a suspicious item on the ground, the officer observed a male attempting to exit an upper window. The male observed the officer, re-entered the window and that same male shot three times at my officer. The BWC buffered at precisely five seconds prior to the shooting, and subsequently, captured crucial evidence.
There was an officer involved shooting on 11/19/22 in which two officers arrived at a domestic dispute. Formal interviews occurred between a mother and her son. During interviews, the male suspect became hostile, argumentative, and irate with officers and asked them to leave. The male suspect was asked to place his hands behind his back and refused, shoving an officer. Four total taser deployments were deployed with no effect. The male suspect picked up an 18-inch knife and attempted to stab the officer who then fired two rounds, stopping the threat. The male suspect expired on scene.

The entire incident from beginning to end was captured on BWC which showed the officer’s point of view and the justification for the deadly force used.

Gretna Police Department

During this reporting period, the Gretna Police Department investigated a homicide within the city limits. During the investigation, the officers used their body worn camera to record witness testimony and the confession of the suspect. The suspect was arrested and transported to the Gadsden County Jail.

McCall Police Department

We recently had a major critical incident take place within our rural community. The review of BWC footage proved to be invaluable. We were able to identify multiple areas where our officers performed very well, and some areas where our officers need certain improvement. The BWC footage clearly identified training deficiencies within our organization, some of which would have gone unknown without the BWC footage.

Trophy Club Police Department

We recovered a stolen vehicle that had an overdose person inside and we administered Narcan, reviving her.
The Trophy Club Police Department was able to locate a shoplifter that walked out of the local grocery store with a basket full of wine totaling over $5,000. The officers identified the individual and learned that she had multiple warrants for the same thing in other cities.

McLennan County (Texas) Constable Office (Precinct 1)

Body Worn Camera (BWC) footage helped the District Attorney’s office locate stolen property from several burglaries. While working on a Writ of Possession (Eviction), one of our deputies equipped with a BWC found a large amount of furniture in a house. Further investigation revealed the property had been stolen. The BWC video was used to identify the property and the suspects who were in the house during the service of the Writ of Possession. Property was recovered, the suspects were identified, and charges were filed.

Blaine Police Department

Three of our officers saved a man’s life by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), administering Narcan, and using an automated external defibrillator (AED). All the officers’ actions were captured on body worn camera (BWC) video. By viewing the footage, Chief Rodger Funk was able to recognize the exemplary actions of these officers. The officers have been nominated and have received lifesaving awards.

Tomball Police Department

Following an arrest for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), the arrestee came to the Tomball Police Department (TPD) the following day looking for her missing purse. The citizen could not remember what happened to the purse and the tow truck driver was accused of taking it. Following a review of the body worn camera (BWC) video, the purse was located and returned to the citizen. The citizen was relieved by the return of the purse and the BWC video evidence exonerated the tow truck driver.
An arrestee alleged that the officer took his identification (ID) and refused to return the ID. Review of BWC video from the arrest revealed that the arrestee never gave the officer his ID but verbally provided his name and date of birth. The arresting officer was cleared of the complaint.

Warminster Township Police Department

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