Body Cams May Not Be Back On OCPD Officers Until 2017

Oklahoma City Police and the Fraternal Order of Police are still at an impasse when it comes to officers wearing body cameras, which may mean the cameras won’t be back on the streets until 2017, according to the FOP president.

The cams were removed from officers back in June with concerns of how supervisors would use the cameras. Since then, talks have been deadlocked and wrapped up in a lengthy contract renewal.

“It's all a give and take in negotiations and we're just now getting into the meat and potatoes of it and hopefully we can get this hammered out pretty quick and get it done,” FOP president John George said on Tuesday. “If we can't reach that agreement and that whole contract has to go back to arbitration, it could be after the first of the year.”

The last time George spoke with News9/Newson6 about the ongoing negotiations was in July. Then he said they were still waiting on insurance data before they could move forward, btu said they were aiming to have the contract negotiations wrapped up by mid-to-late fall. But three issues at the heart of the body camera policy are holding them back from completing the contract.

George said those issues are how many random audits a month or a quarter supervisors are required to do on the video, when a supervisor is allowed to look at video and when officers are supposed to turn their cameras on. FOP wants officers to turn them on when they arrive on scene, but critics of that say they’d like them to be on when officers are dispatched to a scene.

That last issue is one that makes George concerned in the wake of last week's shooting in Tulsa in which an officer shot and killed an unarmed man. The officer in that incident was not wearing a body camera.

“I don't want anything questionable to happen where a camera could have told the events and showed the events as they unfolded and cleared our officers. Yes. We want the cameras back,” George said.

OCPD says any talk on camera would be improper but they too want to see these cameras back on their men and women in uniform.

“When we can't have those out there, helping the officers proving the officers did exactly what they're supposed to do then yeah it does hurt us a little bit.” OCPD spokesperson Cpt. Paco Balderrama said.

Balderrama said they’d like to see the body cam policies dealt with as a break-out issue in the negotiations to get the cameras back on the street as soon as possible. It was an idea George separately echoed and said they’ve offered to do the same.

Both sides will resume talks this Thursday.