Salinas City Council Approves Police Body Camera System Purchase

According to Salinas police, the video system features a "30 second pre-event buffer" and was described in the city council agenda report as follows: "It is Bluetooth enabled to allow officers to enter metadata, such as report numbers, names of persons recorded, and locations, prior to uploading captured video. The captured video is later sent directly to Evidence.com, a cloud-based secure storage location that can only be retrieved by the submitting officer or a police supervisor."

"Police staff believes body worn cameras are an important tool in modern policing and will be valuable in improving transparency, accountability and in enhancing community trust; therefore, staff requests immediate action," the agenda report states.

In 2014, officers with the Salinas Police Department shot and killed four community members, which triggered mass protests and wide-spread calls for police accountability in the city.

Angel Ruiz was killed on March 20 by Sergeant Mark Lazzarini, Officer Daniel DeBorde, and Officer William Yetter; Osman Hernandez was killed on May 9 by Sergeant George Lauricella and Officer Derek Gibson; Carlos Mejia-Gomez was killed on May 20 by Sergeant Danny Warner and Officer Josh Lynd; and Frank Alvarado was killed on July 10 by Sergeant Brian Johnson and Officer Scott Sutton.

Also in 2014, Jaime Garcia died after an officer with the Salinas Police Department shot him with a taser gun on October 31.


Alex Darocy
http://alexdarocy.blogspot.com/