KCPD Chief Rick Smith faces questions about body cameras during police board meeting
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith on Tuesday faced questions from a city council member about how police would use body cameras that the department is still in the process of purchasing and deploying.
During a monthly meeting of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners at police headquarters downtown, Councilwoman Katheryn Shields told Smith and police board members she was concerned about how the department would manage and store video footage from the body cameras.
Smith announced during the summer that the department would deploy body cameras, and since early November 340 officers in Jackson and Clay County have received them. Police have said another 475 will be distributed in the immediate future.
The police department has not yet produced a policy governing the use of the cameras and the storage of the video.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Shields said the state of Missouri requires police departments to store body camera video footage for 30 days.
“I think that ends up being woefully inadequate,” said Shields, who chairs the city’s Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee. ”I would just respectfully ask you to look further into this, and to actually develop a policy that will meet not only the needs of the Kansas City police department, but also protect the rights of our citizens.”
Shields, whose committee has oversight of the police budget, appeared before the police board to discuss the department’s annual budget request and other governance issues.
Police Board Commissioner Nathan Garrett noted that the board had not finalized their plan and were weighing various storage and privacy policy options. The constitutional rights of citizens as well as officer safety were equally critical issues.
“It’s also important that we not let perfect be the enemy of good,” Garrett said. “We’re right out of the gate, this is going to be a fluid process for us. And I think it’s important that we remain open-minded and have open ears to the criticisms and thoughts of other, as we try to get the right mark, as this policy undoubtedly evolves.”
Smith said a working group that consists of state and federal prosecutors, citizens and representatives from the city manager’s office have weighed various options on how long the footage would be stored. Those options range from 120 to 180 days, he said.
“Nothing has been hardened yet in policy, as we hope to have a draft of that policy either next month or the month after that,” Smith said.
Shields said she appreciated the working group included citizens and community leaders, but she said someone with expertise in constitutional rights, possibly a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union, should be added.
“This is a great gift to the city but the full potential can only be recognized, if in fact, if you have a full and complete discussion of the issues,” she said.
It was following days of protests last summer after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer that Smith announced the DeBruce Foundation had donated $1 million and raised another $1.5 million from community partners to pay for the department’s body cameras. Since then, the city has secured federal funding toward the effort.
In August, Kansas City police officers conducted a test with body cameras to better determine system and staff requirements, and for officers to get a feel for the equipment.
The cameras were purchased from Turn-Key Mobile in Jefferson City.
Board President Don Wagner noted that Smith helped secure both private and public funding for the body cameras.
“You know we’re really proud of that fact that we were able to do that without coming to the city and asking for the money for body cameras, which is something that we’ve asked for several years,” Wagner said.
Because of COVID-19 safety restrictions, the public was not allowed to attend Tuesday’s police board meeting.
The meeting was broadcast on the city’s YouTube channel and municipal television channel but the service was disrupted several times. A latter portion of the meeting was shown on the police department’s Facebook page.
“Unfortunately, unlike the Kansas City Council, county commissions all around us, the local Parks and Planning Boards, real-time public comment will not be allowed,” Mayor Quinton Lucas posted on Twitter before the meeting.
