By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
As lawmakers debate the requirement for police officers to wear body cameras, local law enforcement is warning of the costs and issues surrounding the policy.
Senate Bill No. 18 was introduced last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee and would require all uniformed law enforcement officers to wear body cameras while on duty.
Hays Police Chief Don Scheibler and Ellis County Sheriff Ed Harbin stressed they are not against the use of body cameras, but share the opinion there needs to be more research before implementing the measure.
“It’s a process you need to move into carefully,” Scheibler said, “because there are parts of that bill that will cause problems for law enforcement.”
According to Harbin, Ellis County currently has deputies who are equipped with body cameras, although they are older and might not offer the same quality as newer equipment.
HPD officers have worn audio recorders since the mid-1990s, according to Scheibler.
One of the major sticking points for departments is the cost of not only the equipment but also the cost to store the data.
Scheibler estimated it would cost his department about $16,000 to purchase the cameras, and it could cost another $50,000 to store all the footage.
The bill requires departments to keep footage for three years if the incident requires the use of force, an incident leads to an arrest, or if a complaint is filed against an officers or the law enforcement agency.
The Kansas Highway Patrol estimated in a presentation to the Senate committee it would cost the KHP more than $1.3 million in 2016 and another $834,000 in 2017.
Harbin said the requirements that come along with the requirement are another roadblock.
He listed privacy, the restrictions placed upon authoroties by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and officer safety as three of the main issues regarding cameras.
The bill states when officers enter a residence, as long as it not an emergency, they must ask residents if they are allowed to record them.
“If it’s there to protect everybody, it should be on,” Scheibler said. “We shouldn’t be able to turn it off at the will of somebody else.”
Under the proposal, officers could only turn the camera off when having a private personal conversation or using the restroom.
Both Harbin and Scheibler said the deputies and officers are part of the community, and they do not want anything to affect that relationship.
“We don’t want anything that is going to cause separation, cause them not to want to interact with us,” Scheibler said. “I think that’s a very dangerous thing.
“This bill wasn’t thought out,” he added. “We’re trying to fix something that I’m not sure is a problem. This is more a response to some things that are going on across the country, not so much what’s going on in the state of Kansas.”