Montgomery Police considering body cameras for officers

Officers from at least one Kendall County law enforcement agency will be wearing body cameras beginning next year.

Montgomery Police Chief Daniel Meyers announced this past week he expects village patrol officers and sergeants will be equipped with body cameras by mid-to-late 2016.

Meanwhile, Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird and other county police chiefs are considering equipping their officers with the small cameras, which capture video of officers’ on-duty interactions with the public.

But Baird and the other chiefs also expressed concerns about the cost to purchase the cameras and then maintain the hours of video they will produce.

Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation last month creating statewide standards for the use of body cameras by police. The legislation, however, does not require police departments to use the cameras.

To help police departments pay for equipping their officers with cameras, the legislation imposes a $5 fee on traffic tickets issued by police statewide.

Noting that police across the country have been under increased scrutiny over the past 12 to 18 months, Meyers said he believes the video cameras will ultimately serve to protect his officers against complaints from the public.

He added the majority of village officers have been supportive of the idea of using cameras.

“There has been a lot of discussion about body-worn cameras among our officers over the last two years and they know that someday we will be wearing them and they support that,” Meyers said.

Meyers noted that village police have had cameras in their squad cars for the past 15 years.

“We’ve used those videos [from the squad car cameras] in court and it has helped,” he said.

Meyers said how the department will pay for the cameras and associated software to maintain the videos will be the subject of discussions over the next several months as work proceeds on his department’s annual budget. The police department’s budget is included in the village’s annual budget, which is adopted by the village board every April. The village’s next fiscal year will begin May 1.

Meyers said the funds his department will receive from the $5 traffic ticket surcharge will eventually cover the full cost for the cameras.

“The purchase of the cameras is the small part of this,” Meyers explained, adding, “The software and the storage [of the videos] is where it will get costly.”

“We have between five and six officers on patrol for each shift, so I’ll probably purchase eight or ten [cameras]. The officers will sign them out for each shift, similar to signing out a radio and/or a mic for a digital camera that is in their squad car.”

Baird said he will investigate bringing the cameras to the sheriff’s department but isn't ready to move forward with them just yet.

“That's something we're going to look into,” Baird said, adding that he was part of an effort with Oswego Police Capt. Jim Jensen to equip an Oswego squad car with a camera in 1993 – a first for Kendall County.

“I have mixed reviews on the cameras. I think that they can offer some level of recording and documentation of what happened on a particular case, but they don't see everything,” he said.

For instance, he noted that peripheral vision is less than that of a human. Another problem, he said is that people will request the footage under the Freedom of Information Act and edit the videos out of context.

“Oftentimes people will try to tell the story with a mere Polaroid snapshot of what happened,” Baird said.

Another concern is cost.

Baird added that he is not budgeting for the cameras this year without knowing how much state funding the county will be getting.

He said the sheriff's office researched grants for getting cameras as well but is not ready to move forward on the cameras.

“I haven't thought about cost but I think the state of Illinois needs to get their financial woes figured out before they start passing down unfunded mandates, which I'm glad to see this is not mandatory,” Baird said. “I'm not opposed to them – just who is going to pay for it. I think more research needs to be done.”

As far as the cameras catching police misconduct, Baird says that's another issue.

“I think if police executives were given more latitude on holding their officers and deputies accountable that some of this police misconduct could be avoided,” Baird said. “You allow us to clean up our profession and that will really help a lot of this, but not all of it.”

Yorkville Police Chief Rich Hart says he thinks the cameras are a good idea and believes the police department will adopt them one day. However, he also has concerns about paying for the devices, which could run as much as $100,000 to equip officers.

There are 30 full-time sworn officers and five part-time officers on the Yorkville Police Department, and of those, about 21 are patrol officers. Hart said he would like to equip most of the officers with cameras, including patrol officers, patrol sergeants and detectives.

“I'd say they are a good idea,” Hart said. Many people are calling for police to carry these cameras to catch cases of police abuse, Hart mentioned, but those cases don't happen that often.

Hart said the cameras could actually make his department's job easier.

“It's going to be more evidence for us against people in criminal cases. And that's what the public doesn't understand about police video cases is that when we go to domestic situations where people are intoxicated and they act horribly,” Hart said. “I think a lot of people will be in for a shock once we get these video cameras because they're thinking it's to keep down police brutality issues and it's going to be quite different.”

Both Hart and Baird also say they have concerns about the limitations of the cameras.

“They don't get it all and there is an example of a shooting in Chicago where the police looked like they were shooting an unarmed man when he actually had a gun behind his back,” Hart said.

Another video, Hart said, taken from a different angle, revealed the gun.

Hart said that people might be shocked if a video of them appears in court.

“I can tell you from personal experiences that we'll deal with some of these domestic situations or neighborhood disputes and people are out of control,” Hart said. “And then when it comes time for court two or three months later they're in a suit, clean cut and a pillar of their community.”

Oswego Police Chief Jeff Burgner described village police as being in “research mode” on the use of the cameras.

“I have no problem with cameras,” Burgner said. “I would like to have the ability to do that [videotaping].”

He added that he has not polled the department’s 49 officers on the use of the cameras, but believes they would also be supportive.

“I have heard no negative pushback from our officers,” he said.

Burgner said the department is researching the overall use of the cameras and their potential impact on the district’s finances and operation.

"I think we are all pretty much looking at them," Plano Police Chief Steve Eaves said, referring to his department and others in the area.

Plano has not tested the devices yet and the biggest question for the department may be the cost, Eaves said.

But he said the department has had good experience with cameras in squad cars and believes that adding the body cameras would help, rather than hinder, law enforcement.

"I think they would definitely be an asset," he said. "A lot of people might think it would go against the officer, but it is also to his or her protection."

• News Editor Dan Waitt and reporter Matt Schury contributed to this article.