Here Are The NJ Officers Required To Wear Body Cameras

NEW JERSEY - All New Jersey police departments will be required to equip their uniformed patrol officers with cameras. But it doesn't mean that the cameras will be rolling all the time.

“We are witnessing a new chapter in policing in New Jersey with the reforms we are implementing in partnership with law enforcement and community leaders. And, with the body cameras we are funding, we will literally have an objective witness to how police carry out their duties,” Governor Phil Murphy said. “These powerful devices have been embraced by community members and advocates calling for transparency and by police officers, who see them as a critical tool to protect and assist law enforcement with their difficult jobs."

Who Will Wear Them

According to the directive issued by the Office of the Attorney General, officers assigned to tactical teams, proactive enforcement teams, canine units, or duties that include regular interaction with the public (officers at the front desk of a police precinct, for example) at will generally be required to be equipped with BWCs.

Who Won't

Officers engaged in undercover assignments, administrative duties or working with confidential
informants are among those not required to be equipped with BWCs.

How The Footage Will Be Used

The directive has the broad requirement that BWCs be activated in almost all police-citizen
encounters and that supervisors review BWC recordings to improve officer performance. It also notes that law enforcement officers are prohibited from reviewing BWC recordings prior to preparing initial police reports in most cases.

Will It Always Be On

No. Officers will be able to turn them off for bathroom breaks, non-emergent visits to schools, courthouses, hospitals and places of worship. They all can be asked to turn them off by someone receiving medical care and inside private residences. But both of those have caveats including as long as you are not under arrest when asking, there is a criminal investigation or they feel they might need to use force.

Departments that are already using them, have seen benefits. Murphy watched Tuesday morning at the Camden department, which has been using body-worn cameras since 2016, footage from a camera worn by a Camden County police officer that began with a mental health crisis and ended with no serious injuries.

Projected on a floor-to-ceiling screen, the scene unfolded from a recording taken by Officer Anthony Alvarez’s body camera. In it, Alvarez and other officers spoke calmly to a man who was suffering from schizophrenia, and who at one point brandished sticks at the officers.

Officers eventually fired a taser at him, had him taken to a hospital, and filed no charges - a “peaceful outcome,” according to Camden Capt. Kevin Lutz, especially when considering a tripod that resembled a rifle that officers saw leaning against the wall of the man’s basement bedroom.

The agencies requested funding to purchase 28,214 cameras at a total cost of approximately $57.5 million. The Attorney General’s Office is administering the grant program on a reimbursement basis, with agencies receiving funding at $2,038 per camera, which may be used for the purchase of cameras and equipment needed to operate them, and towards the costs of storing BWC footage. Many agencies continue to work toward compliance with the BWC mandate and remain at various stages in the procurement process, which has been impacted by the resulting demand for BWCs.

The footage shown to Murphy Tuesday taken was last month and was viewed on the department’s VirTra simulator, used to evaluate interactions between officers and residents. Lutz said they offer a way for officers to weigh what has gone wrong and right with such confrontations.

"It gives us something to look back on," he said. "Just like game-day footage."

The recordings also provide objective evidence for court cases, officials said.

Murphy, who met briefly with community leaders and local leaders at the department, said the law will bolster trust between officers and residents in departments around the state.

“It’s good for law enforcement, it’s good for the communities they serve, and it’s good for New Jersey,” he said.

Press pool coverage provided by Allison Steele, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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