Body-Worn Cameras

Scott Shellenberger State’s Attorney Capt Scott Shellenberger State’s Attorney Capt. Joseph Conger Baltimore County Police Dept.

Baltimore County has launched a Body Camera Program

Currently 150 cameras in use on patrol officers on the street

Will run 150 cameras until July 2017 to work out the bugs

Full deployment expected Starting July 2017, will roll out 20 cameras every 2 weeks until full strength at 1,435 Full deployment expected by December 2018

Cameras Cameras purchased are the Taser Axon Flex More information can be found on the website: www.axon.io/products/flex

Cameras must be turned on during “enforcement action” and should not be turned off until enforcement has ended. But, there is discretion, i.e. at citizen request

Policy The Police Department’s BWC policies are available on their web site at: www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/police/bodycameras

Once an officer’s shift is over, they put Body Camera in a docking station that recharges the battery and uploads video to the Cloud www.evidence.com

BWC Video Once the video is uploaded, it will create a gold standard video that is uneditable. While you will not have access to this original, it exists and can be viewed to prove authenticity if it becomes an issue.

Retention The retention of video mirrors the retention periods of physical evidence in the property room. Routine traffic cases: 18 months Misdemeanor and serious traffic: 3 years Most felonies: 10 years Most serious felonies: indefinitely

SAO Access SAO will have access to BWC footage when misdemeanors, jailable traffic charges or felony charges are filed or where a suspect has been identified whether or not an officer has brought charges. SAO accesses BWC videos through TASER’s Evidence.com portal

Court Playing When no ASA District courts have iPads 2 at Towson 1 each at Catonsville and Essex Police can access their account Clerks can get access

Greatly affects my office Shielding Personal information of witness People in hospital Identification of innocent bystanders What has evidentiary value Discovery Court playing time At the moments we have laptops Working on a better fix

Shielding Examples Juveniles Witness’ personal information Nudity Locker rooms/personal spaces

How do you access videos? In District Court, discovery for BWC recordings will be handled through an authenticated email link from Evidence.com that is similar to our existing ShareFile system. Once you register for a free account at https://my.Evidence.com, you can receive BWC recordings over the internet with the options to play or download them to your own files. All future videos can then be accessed through that same account number.

How do you access videos? If you have problems opening an account, or any Body Camera questions, please call 410-887-6600 and ask for the Body Camera Unit. Unfortunately, we cannot incorporate Body Camera videos into regular discovery so you will get two discovery emails.

Circuit Court Discovery In Circuit Court, discovery will still be done in hard copy form and any BWC video that exists will be placed on a DVD or flash drive depending on the size of the file.

Staffing 2 new Evidence Specialists 1 new Attorney Future??? Anywhere from 8 to 12 paralegals

Thank You!