By this summer, all of Lexington’s sworn police officers are expected to be equipped with body cameras. A Lexington city council committee received an update on the body camera project last week.
The order’s been placed and Lexington police should be seeing body cams over the next few months and training for 200 employees in the department. All sergeants and officers in operational assignments are already equipped with body cameras. These body cams will go to officers who primarily work in administrative-investigative assignments. Assistant Chief Brian Maynard said technology is available where body cameras automatically start when a gun is drawn. “There’s also a component we are testing right now for when the taser is utilized, when it’s turned on, the same thing. It automatically triggers the body worn camera and then that turns it on,” said Maynard.
Council Member Jennifer Reynolds asked Assistant Police Chief Eric Lowe about the protocol for releasing videos to the public. “Can there be a policy that every time you release a clip of a video you make the whole video available for transparency sake? Asked Reynolds
“So I think it definitely would be reasonable for us to determine the appropriate amount of video to release. It may not be all of the videos,” said Lowe.
Lowe offered an example where a number of officers might have body cameras rolling at the same scene with the same view. Assistant Chief Maynard told the council committee a police department Facebook page tied to a YouTube site could be used for the release of full-length police footage.
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