Clark-Pleasant police to wear body cameras come January

All five officers of Clark-Pleasant schools’ newly formed police department will wear body cameras come next year.

The Clark-Pleasant school board on Tuesday voted 4-1 to approve the purchase of body cameras from Axon Enterprise Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz. company that also produces Tasers.

The five-year contract includes new cameras every two years, storage capabilities, warranties and licensing agreements, and will cost $44,269.

Board member Laura Cope was the sole dissenter, voting no because it wasn’t clear if parents would be able to request video footage of incidents involving their children, she said.

“If a video is turned over to a prosecutor or elsewhere, faces can be blurred or blacked out for those not involved in the incident,” Spray said. “We want to be accommodating and transparent, but we could be overrun by requests for every video we have.”

The goal is to have the officers wearing the cameras after winter break in January. Before then, Axon representatives will train the officers virtually, said Bruce Campbell, interim police chief.

“We want be open and honest with everybody, especially involving children at the schools and incidents,” Campbell said. “We have very good video surveillance, but this adds additional audio and video and allows us to be open and honest with everyone on our actions. More than getting an officer into trouble, it will support how officers do their job.”

Officers will be required to have their cameras on anytime they are in or around school buildings, and cameras turn on automatically anytime an officer’s weapon is drawn, said Jay Staley, business director at Clark-Pleasant schools.

“We want to go back (and look at the footage) if there are allegations of misconduct, but for training purposes as well, if they could deescalate or handle the situation differently than what occurred,” Staley said.

There will be consequences for officers who don’t have their cameras on, although those consequences have not yet been determined, Campbell said.

Superintendent Patrick Spray said it was time to get on board.

“Officers are supportive of the technology and want things to be as transparent as possible,” Spray said. “In situations, if someone used excessive force or inappropriate force or language, there’s documentation to back up what they’ve done. Initially, I wondered how much of the law enforcement community would be supportive, but if feels like they definitely have been, and it gives an additional layer of transparency.”