Soap Lake approves purchase of 5 police body cameras

SOAP LAKE ­- Soap Lake has now joined a nationwide effort to provide transparency to the police process, as the council approved the purchase of five body cameras for the city’s police department during Wednesday night's council meeting.

The council unanimously approved the purchase of five body cameras costing $12,945. A large portion of the body camera purchase cost is already covered, as the SLPD was able to surplus various items for about $12,000, leaving minimal costs left to be allocated for the purchase, explained SLPD Interim Chief Ryan Cox.

Cox said the SLPD has been testing one body camera as of late and the force has already seen how the cameras can be used to better serve citizens on a day-to-day basis. The information from the cameras will be downloaded daily after each officer shift and will be stored on an in-house server at the SLPD station.

“It is, I can say, making a tremendous difference. Especially not only for the citizens seeing us and a lot of people noticing; but the prosecutors certainly love it,” Cox told the council Wednesday night. “There is a study, and I’m not going to quote the source of it, but I know for a fact that even having cameras dramatically reduces assaults on police officers.”

One of the bigger issues that was discussed during Wednesday night’s meeting was that of the public requesting to view the video data. Cox explained that citizens have the ability to fill out a public records request with the city to see, or purchase a copy of the video in question. There is a redaction process that the videos must go through, which edits out certain elements in the footage the SLPD is not required to release to the person requesting it.

“It (the redaction process) falls under a lot of things. Like, the new guidelines, if you are within someone’s house, I don’t have to give it (the video) to you. Because you have that expectation of privacy. If a minor is involved to a certain point. If I can’t blur the face or depending on the scene, I don’t have to give it out to you if it’s a certain crime,” Cox explained.

House Bill 2362, which concerns police body cameras in Washington, was passed by the Senate in early March and went into effect in June, details a series of investigative, law enforcement and crime victim information that is exempt from public viewing and copying.

Exempt materials include: investigate reports pertaining to sex offenses or sexually violent offenses, license applications, copies of license applications and/or information on the applications, information on local or regional gang databases, and information that has been submitted to the state unified sex offender notification and registration program.

City attorney Katherine Kenison praised the council for moving in the direction of body cameras for the SLPD, noting that body cameras are becoming the industry standard across the country for police forces. She stated that the biggest downside is the resources that are spent on public records requests.

“As your chief indicated, certain images that are captured are non-disclosable and subject to exemptions under the public records act. And so the redaction software that we are required to have access to and purchase allows us to obscure the portions of the images that are exempt from disclosure,” Kennison stated. “So that requires some staff time.”

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.