Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2021, $969,292)
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) requests funds to expand its body-worn camera program with 500 additional cameras. Body-worn cameras (BWC) and their footage have become integral parts of the LAPD’s accountability and transparency process. Since 2015 when BWCs were first introduced to officers, the Department has used the footage for a variety of purposes. These include videos for training at the academy, to determine whether officers acted inappropriately, to augment internal and external investigations, and to add footage as evidence for arrests. Importantly, footage has been released to the public, media, and policy makers after officer-involved shootings and critical events for their review.
The Department’s Tactical Technology Section (TTS) has worked closely with Bureau of Justice Assistance’s BWC training and technical assistance providers (CNA, Arizona State University, and Justice & Security Strategies, Inc.) and LAPD is a pilot site for its multi-agency study of digital evidence management (DEM).
This request is for detectives and officers who work overtime and/or are assigned to emergency duties for protests, demonstrations, and other operations on a moment’s notice. Recommendations and suggestions in after-action reports from the George Floyd protests and numerous demonstrations over the last year (2020 to the present) have indicated that more cameras are needed for all officers and investigators no matter their current assignments.
The project has two goals and multiple objectives:
Goal 1. Continue to establish a comprehensive BWC program that includes policy development, training, and interaction with the community and stakeholders
Goal 2. Implement operational procedures and tracking mechanisms that address digital evidence media
The Department will provide BJA with performance measures that include the number of cameras purchased, the number of officers trained, and the number of uses of force and citizen complaints. Quarterly and semi-annual reports, monthly calls, and participation in webinars, conferences, and workshops are part of the deliverables that will be produced.