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Milton Police ahead of curve on officer cams

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Image is a picture from a Milton Police Officer on-body camera during an on-duty investigation into the report of a burglary at a vacant house in Milton. One can see that the film quality is very good.

MILTON - By next week about half of St. Louis County (Missouri) police officers will be recording every call for service using cameras like what the Milton Police Department has been using since 2012.

The events that took place in Ferguson in early August when an unarmed black teenager was fatally shot by a police officer spurred the recent effort to outfit local lawmen with body cameras, but to Milton Police Chief Richard Krauss it just made sense all along.

"There are cameras everywhere in our society," Krauss said last week during an exclusive interview with The Lebanon Voice. "For our police department, these cameras definitely work."

The Milton Police Department purchased three cameras in December 2012, one for each shift. Back then they cost about a $1,000 apiece. Now they're down to $500.

But Krauss said they have done nothing but save the department both time and money. He cited figures from 2013 that showed 70 percent of criminal cases in which cameras were not rolling had to go to trial, while less than a handful went to trial when incidents were video recorded.

"It cuts down on the he said, she said," Krauss said.

The cameras are not rolling at all times, Krauss said, but when there is an investigation of a crime or violation, an arrest or transport of a prisoner. He said if an officer enters a home the homeowner can request they turn the camera off.

Officers can wear the camera on glasses, which could be clear or prescription, or on a headband that goes behind and over the ears.

Officers can wear the feather-wight cameras on a handband or glasses frame.

As a testament to their effectiveness Krauss recalled a DWI traffic stop in Milton that had been initiated by a lawman from a nearby community. When Milton PD arrived on scene the cameras were rolling and recorded the driver grabbing the keys out of the ignition as he got out of the car, showing conclusively he had control of the vehicle in an inebriated state.

In a resisting arrest case, a woman from Milton remarked to a town police officer after pleading guilty that the only reason she pleaded guilty was because she knew it was on tape, Krauss said.

For the next three months, the St. Louis Police Department will decide whether to use cameras that attach to the officer's shirt or on their head, but Krauss said the head is where they should be because then you see what the officers see. If he turns his head, the (shirt-mounted) camera might miss it, he said. Also he said if the officer and the person he's interacting with get too close, all you see is their midsection, not their face.

Pundits around the country are weighing in how events might have played out in Ferguson had the police officer who shot teenager Michael Brown been wearing a body cam.

Wearing an on-person camera may also have a secondary benefit, according to some experts.

Michael White, a criminologist at Arizona State University, wrote a report on body cameras for the Department of Justice in August 2013 in which he said the technology may work to create a "civilizing effect" in both officers and those they interact with.

"We don't know exactly what happens during encounters, but an officer wearing a camera changes people's behavior and the officer is less likely to be rude and aggressive," he says. "My question is, whose behavior is changing? Is it the officer or the citizen changing?"

Krauss also said he likes the cameras, because they show an incident in its entirety.

"A lot of times people will release cell phone videos, but they don't show the whole video," he said. "When we record, we see the video of an incident in its entirety."

He said cruiser cameras can be ineffective for the same reason. If the incident moves away from the cruiser, there is a loss of evidentiary credibility. He said in a simulated arrest incident comparing the effectiveness of a cruiser camera to an officer camera, viewers see s suspect go off camera, then run the other way with the officer chasing him in the cruiser cam. With the officer cam, they see the suspect attacking the officer then running away with the officer in pursuit.

Krauss said the cameras may not be for every department, but "They are a success for us."

No other Strafford County town uses the officer cam, and Krauss said the only other New Hampshire town that he is aware of that uses them is Hinsdale, in the state's southwest corner.

Maine State Police also do not currently use them.

Krauss hopes to purchase enough of the featherweight Taser Axon cameras by the end of the year to outfit every officer with their own personal device.

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