Evanston police have been wearing body cameras for the second week now, after rolling out the program at the end of January.
“Nationwide, the use of body-worn cameras have become a best practice for police departments,” Evanston Police Department officials said in a news release announcing the start of the program.
Following weeks of training and a pilot program that ran from June to September last year, police officials said, officers began wearing the cameras as of Jan. 26.
Police officials say that all Evanston police officers will now use a body camera, which will record public interactions while in the field – to the extent state law allows.
“Citizens should have the expectation that encounters that are not exempted by state law will be recorded,” officials state in the release.
Use of the cameras is being billed as a way to improve evidence collection methods and to strengthen officer performance and accountability, among other functions, officials said.
During the pilot program, nine of officers and two of supervisors tested body-worn cameras, officials said.
“The pilot program was successful, the body-worn camera proved to be a valuable tool in all phases of police operations,” according to the release. “Use of the body-worn cameras were useful in investigating criminal incidents and complaints by citizens about police conduct.”
Body cameras are “becoming more of a norm in policing all around,” Evanston police Commander Joseph Dugan said in September. “It’s expected whether in court or in internal complaints” to have body camera footage of an incident.
On Sept. 25, 2017, Evanston aldermen approved a contract with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Axon Enterprises Inc. to spend $1.1 million over five years to outfit police with the body cameras.
Officers often appreciate them, Dugan said previously, because they provide a record of events when two sides differ on what happened in an incident.
Evanston police had already been using dash cameras. But those are different from the new devices they have now.
“A body camera is affixed to the officer, a dash camera is permanently mounted to the dashboard of a car,” Dugan explained.
Evanston police plan to keep both camera systems, Dugan said, as each one has its benefits.
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Evanston Police Department officials said use of body cameras by officers is the result of a collaboration with the Northwestern University Police Department.
The partnership helped to secure a federal grant to help fund the program for both police departments, the release stated. Using the federal funds and money the city provided, the Evanston Police Department bought 120 of the special cameras, officials said.
As the city announced layoffs last fall, the only approved hires included a video records clerk to process recordings made from the police body cameras.
Kyra Senese is a freelancer.
Pioneer Press staff reporter Genevieve Bookwalter contributed to this report.