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Footage from body-worn police cameras is crucial in use-of-force investigations, but the video does little good if it starts in the middle of a confrontation.
The BART Police Department believes it’s figured out a fix.
The first few moments when an officer approaches someone in the BART system can be among the most critical in judging the whole encounter, however, BART officers had a problem with their video often starting to record in the middle of an incident.
"We recognized that we had what we believed was an ongoing concern about late or failed camera activations," BART Police Independent Police Auditor Russel Bloom said.
That would make the BART Police Department cutting edge.
According to Bloom, only one other police agency in the country gets a buffer zone over 30 seconds that includes audio. BART Police were an early adopter of these cameras in the transit, so they know just how useful they are in the event they now capture more of each incident.
"It gives people a voice, gives people the opportunity to look at the video and say that’s exactly what happened," BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez said.
Riders have called on BART Board members to abolish the department altogether in light of national conversation around defunding police departments.