Pierce County Begins Outfitting Deputies With Body Cameras

TACOMA, WA — They aren't finished just yet, but the Pierce County Sheriff's Department says it is in the process of equipping its deputies with new, body-worn cameras and dashcams for their patrol vehicles.

In a Facebook post, the Sheriff's Department said it was "excited" to bring the project to fruition.

"The use of recorders is intended to enhance the mission of our department and to promote transparency in law enforcement by accurately recording contacts between members of our department and the public," the agency said.

Deputies will be required to take a five-hour training course on camera operation sometime within the next three weeks, FOX 13 reported, after which, they'll be wearing the cameras while out on patrol.

The body camera program has been a while in the making: Originally, the Sheriff's Department had hoped to have body cameras in use by summer, but pushback from the Pierce County Deputy Sheriff’s Independent Guild delayed their use, The News Tribune reported. The Sheriff's Department and Guild have since reached a tentative agreement, but are still working out some details, including how much extra compensation deputies will receive for wearing the cameras, according to the Tribune.

The move puts the Sheriff's Department ahead of the King County Sheriff's Office, where progress on body cam proposals remain deadlocked. Agencies that already employ body cams include the Seattle Police Department and Sumner Police Department, which only recently adopted a body camera policy for its officers.

Funding for the program came from the county, which set aside $2.1 million of its biennial budget to pay for the new body cams, dash cams, and training. In its budget summary, the Pierce County Council said it hoped the program would "promote equitable justice and build community trust." The council's budget also sets aside funding to hire a new internal affairs detective to investigate community complaints, and create an Ombud's office for law enforcement oversight.

Related: Pierce Exec Signs $3.01 Billion Biennial Budget

Under the Pierce County Sheriff's Department's Body Worn and Vehicle Camera Recorders policy, deputies will be required to have their cameras running during:

• Investigative contacts like domestic violence calls, custodial arrests, responding to uses of force or crimes in progress, and contacting suspects or people suffering mental health crises.
• All traffic stops, from helping stranded motorists to car chases.
• Any self-initiated activity in which the officer "would normally notify South Sound 911".
• Any in-person contact that becomes adversarial or hostile, even if it follows a situation where a body camera would not otherwise be required.

Deputies cannot record face-to-face conversations without first telling everyone in the conversation that they are on camera. The public has a right not to be recorded and can ask the deputy to turn their camera off. Deputies also retain some discretion in when to activate the cameras:

"Members should remain sensitive to the dignity of all individuals being recorded and exercise sound discretion to respect privacy by discontinuing recording whenever it reasonably appears to the member that such privacy may outweigh any legitimate law enforcement interest in recording and a subject of the recording agrees to such a request," the policy reads.

>> Read the full, 12-page policy from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department