Articles

Originally published in: The Washington Post

The U.S. Park Police said Thursday that officers stationed in San Francisco will begin wearing body-worn cameras, making the federal police agency one of the few to use such cameras, and the new Park Police chief said the cameras will be worn by officers in Washington and New York by the end of the year.

Chief Pamela A. Smith said when she was named to the top spot in February that she would immediately move to implement cameras for the department, which also does not use in-car cameras. The only federal officers that currently use body cameras are rangers in the National Park Service and officers in the Fish and Wildlife Service, according to testimony and information gathered by the House Natural Resources Committee last fall. The Justice Department — with more than 43,000 sworn agents in the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Marshals Service — does not use body-worn or in-car cameras.

Legislation to require all federal uniformed officers to use body-worn or in-car cameras was proposed by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and passed the House earlier this year but is still being considered in the Senate. And Thursday, the House authorized spending of $8.6 million to provide body cameras for U.S. Capitol Police as part of the bill increasing security at the Capitol. Capitol Police officers did not wear cameras during the riot on Jan. 6.

The Park Police officers’ union said it worked closely with Smith on the rollout of the cameras and the creation of an interim policy on their use, for issues such as when officers may view footage, how it will be stored and when it can be released to the public. The Park Police did not respond to a request for a copy of the policy Thursday.

“For years, our labor committee has urged Congress to provide our agency the appropriations we need to implement this necessary program. We are pleased that our voice has finally been heard,” said Kenneth Spencer, chair of the Park Police Fraternal Order of Police chapter. “This program will be instrumental in ensuring law enforcement transparency to the public. … Our officers are excited to finally benefit from this technology.”

Spencer said body cameras will soon be introduced in Washington and New York, the other two cities where the Park Police patrol national parks and parkways, along with the interim policy, and that a permanent policy would follow. He said that the National Park Service would handle the task of retaining the large amounts of data generated by digital cameras and that officers will be allowed to review footage before writing reports in some cases, but not in use-of-force cases without commanders’ authorization.

It was not clear how many uniformed officers will be equipped with the cameras. Smith said in February that there were 42 employees in San Francisco and in a news release Thursday that every sworn officer working in a public capacity at the rank of captain and below would wear one. The Park Police did not respond to an inquiry about how many sworn officers are stationed in Washington and New York. The department reported having 560 sworn officers in a 2018 Justice Department census of federal law enforcement.

The Park Police’s lack of cameras was brought into focus in November 2017 when two officers working in Northern Virginia pursued then fatally shot unarmed motorist Bijan Ghaisar after he repeatedly stopped and then drove away from the officers. A Fairfax County police lieutenant followed the Park Police vehicle, and the shooting was captured on his in-car camera. Fairfax police released that video in 2018. The officers, Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya, have now been charged in Fairfax with involuntary manslaughter.

Smith said in February she was not familiar with the Ghaisar case, since she was working in New York in 2017. She said that one of her first priorities as chief was to be briefed on the case and that she was “certainly looking forward to providing a response.” The Park Police have not publicly discussed the Ghaisar case since it happened.

Ghaisar’s mother, Kelly Ghaisar, testified before the House Natural Resources oversight and investigations subcommittee in September and urged the widespread use of cameras. “Body cameras do one important job,” Kelly Ghaisar said. “They give us the truth, not a version of alternative truth.” She said she was appalled at the reasons given for the Park Police not to have cameras when numerous local police departments have them. “The only reason is because they don’t want to be transparent,” she said. “Period.”