“I’m proud that our deputies in Lancaster are some of the [Los Angeles County Sheriff’s] Department’s earliest adopters of bodycam technology,” Captain John Lecrivain said. “These cameras will serve as another tool available to us as we work to keep the Lancaster community safe.”
“Public safety remains the number one priority in Lancaster,” said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris. “The body cameras now being worn by our deputies are helping advance that sense of accountability and ultimately making our city a safer, better place for all.”
Sheriff’s stations in Lancaster, Century, Lakewood, Industry, and West Hollywood were the first to be trained and equipped with the cameras beginning in the fall of 2020, according to LASD. The Department expects to complete the roll-out of body cameras in the first half of 2022.
Deputies are required to activate their body-worn cameras prior to initiating, or upon arrival at, any enforcement or investigative contact involving a member of the public, according to LASD. The cameras, the Department says, are a “promising tool to improve evidentiary outcomes, and enhance the safety of, and improve interactions between officers and the public.”
More information on LASD’s body-worn camera policy can be found at: https://lasd.org/transparency/bodyworncamerafaq/
[Information via news release from the city of Lancaster.]
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Sticks @livepd says
This technology is arcaic yet it’s being spun as if the folks at LASD are a detachment of DEVGRU and or are setting some remarkable precedent. If individual deputies were not already wearing their own privately purchased bodycams just for their own safety and accountability in today’s climate, I would damn near question their motives. This is good for all parties on both sides of the law and everything inbetween. It keeps those pushing a black and white accountable and it protects those who seem to think the world is out to get them and conversely dislike law enforcement equally. I say this pejoratively. Only problem with this narrative is deputies control when to ‘begin recording.’ They (LASD) are obligated to follow an s.o.p of sorts that I won’t pretend to have any familiarity with. Meaning there are clear cut instructions set forth within the department as to when the deputy MUST record an encounter. I personally believe if deputies can be trusted with loaded weapons and several rounds of ammunition, they can be trusted with the bodycam and subsequent ‘button pressing’ to record their encounters. Lastly, has anyone seen these on deputies in the field!? They are big and bulky and given technological advances, I don’t understand why they went with what’s basically a go pro only bigger and heavier. That said, there’s probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for the decision of the aforementioned. Very Interested in what that may be. Regardless, I’m comfident I have made it abundantly clear to those still reading that I am no rocket surgeon nor have I ever been mistaken for the brightest bulb in the crayon box… (That sounds right)
Camera Shy says
Body cameras have been needed for a long time.
Stinger says
Yup.
FatWhiteBob says
I expect to see plenty of video evidence of Antelope Valley citizens using poor judgement and bad behavior when confronted by deputies.
Tim Scott says
Yeah that is pretty much the only thing I expect them to release.
Stinger says
True. Most of the time, the video shows the officer to be correct in his actions… ’cause s/he knows s/he’s being recorded. On rare occasions, it will show when the officer screws up, too.
All in all, it should help a lot in police interactions with the public… Which that department really does need right now.