Marin County Grand Jury
• 2017-2018
Body-worn Cameras and Marin Law Enforcement Follow Up Report
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
With the exception of Sausalito, all Marin County law enforcement agencies are now following the 2013-14 Marin Civil Grand Jury’s recommendation that body-worn cameras be used.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
Video camera policies published on law enforcement agency websites enhance transparency and help gain public trust.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
Although all agencies have policies regarding police video technology, not all agencies have posted policies on a public website.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
Sausalito should implement body-worn cameras as recommended by the 2013-14 Marin County Civil Grand Jury and by this Grand Jury.
R2
Marin law enforcement agencies that have not posted their body-worn camera policies to their websites should do so
F4
Automatically activated body-worn cameras reduce the occurrence of failure to capture critical events when compared with manually activated cameras.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
All Marin law enforcement agencies should seek to employ automated activation of body-worn cameras based on that agency’s choice of activation modes.
F5
Data storage and data management costs are often many times the cost of the cameras themselves with the newer camera systems.
Related Recommendations (2)
R4
All Marin law enforcement agencies pursuing new or improved video technology should explore cooperative negotiating and resource sharing with other agencies to reduce costs.
R5
The County of Marin should work with the law enforcement agencies to form a county- wide buying group to reduce the costs of video technology.
F6
Platforms that allow sharing of information technology resources exist and can lower individual agencies’ costs.
Related Recommendations (2)
R4
All Marin law enforcement agencies pursuing new or improved video technology should explore cooperative negotiating and resource sharing with other agencies to reduce costs.
R5
The County of Marin should work with the law enforcement agencies to form a county- wide buying group to reduce the costs of video technology.
F7
Half of the reporting agencies in Marin have experienced a decrease in citizen complaints against officers since deploying body-worn cameras.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
No Marin agency has reported an increase in citizen complaints.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
Agencies have reported that the time required to investigate citizen complaints has decreased with the use of BWCs.
No recommendations for this finding