Body-Worn Cameras and Dashboard Cameras: Policy Review and Recommendations

The Office of Police Oversight is making recommendations on Austin Police Department (APD) policies related to body-worn cameras (BWC) and dashboard cameras (DMAV) in response to the Austin City Council resolutions passed in June 2020.

The report “Body Worn Camera and Digital Mobile Audio Video: Policy Review and Recommendations” examines Austin Police Department’s (APD) current policy for body-worn camera and in-car cameras and how current policies compare to national best practices of policing. OPO’s research revealed that APD’s policies do not align with national best practices. Further, the report proposes changes to improve safety for both the community and police officers.

Some concerns about these policies that OPO’s report addresses include:

Reliance on policies from Lexipol leads to vague guidelines and removes community from the policymaking process

APD relies on a private corporation called Lexipol to write many of its policies. Research has shown that Lexipol does not seek local community input when writing policies.

The current purpose statements governing body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras do not align with the City of Austin’s Reimagining Public Safety initiative 

Research shows that body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras have the potential to help achieve the goals of reducing racial profiling, decreasing unnecessary police violence, and improving community-police relationships when officers use them to record their interactions.

APD policy needs to be revised to align with recent state legislation and provide more clarity where state law is lacking

APD’s policy related to body-worn camera deactivation has not been updated to align with the House Bill 929, also known as the Botham Jean Act, which amended sections of the Texas Occupations Code governing the use of body-worn cameras by peace officers

The current concepts and definitions related to body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras are unclear

The General Orders permit officers to deactivate dashboard and body-worn camera audio for “administrative reasons,” but the situations that constitute “administrative reasons” do not appear administrative in nature and do not provide guidance for supervisors in authorizing the deactivation.

The current General Orders allow too much officer discretion in activating and deactivating body-worn cameras

Lack of clear guidance results in inconsistent interpretations and application of the policy.

Current General Orders do not require officers to document their use of body-worn and dashboard cameras in an incident report or case file 

The current General Orders do not require officers to document whether they used a body-worn camera during an incident. Additionally, the General Orders do not appear to comply with a Texas law [Texas Occupations Code Section 1701.657(c)] requiring officers to document a reason for not recording with their body-worn cameras when recording was required.

The title “Advisement & Consent” for General Order 303.3.2 does not reflect its content 

The current policy does not discuss consent and does not provide guidance on when or how officers should advise someone that they’re being recorded.

The current General Orders do not require supervisors to conduct inspections of dashboard camera recordings

Austin Police Department supervisors are required to conduct inspections of body-worn cameras. The current General Orders do not require supervisors to conduct such inspections of dashboard cameras.

The current General Orders do not support consistency or transparency in enforcement and discipline

APD has applied the current Discipline Matrix inconsistently and routinely classifies violations of body-worn camera and dashboard camera policies as Supervisor Referral-Minor Policy Violations (SR-MPVs), which permit APD to close these cases without discipline.

OPO will be using a three-phase approach to conduct the rewrite of APD’s General Orders, including a preliminary analysis of APD’s current policies, a community engagement campaign to seek public input about these policies and OPO’s recommendations, and a final analysis discussing the input received and sharing the findings with the City Manager and APD. This document demonstrates the first phase of this approach.