The police chief described how the cameras will be used — and also when they'll be switched off.
CHERRY HILL TWP. -- By the end of October, all Cherry Hill police officers will be wearing body cameras on their chests, recording anything -- down to the writing of a ticket -- but not everything.
Police Chief William "Bud" Monaghan told residents at an informational meeting on the cameras that the department's draft policy sets limitations on the use of cameras at schools and hospitals. It also gives officers the option to acquiesce to a resident's request to not be filmed if he or she fears retaliation for reporting a crime.
But, he said, the idea of the constant recording is something that both officers and residents will have to get used to.
At the meeting Wednesday, they seemed to share the sentiment that the cameras are a good thing and will be important both to protect residents and officers.
Cherry Hill Police Chief William Monaghan at a meeting on body cameras Sept. 7, 2016. "We want the videos. We want to see the positives or negatives that's on there," Monaghan said.
Every officer, both full and part time, will be assigned a Taser-brand Axon Body Camera 2. Each officer will switch on his or her camera whenever he or she gets out of the cruiser or initiates any kind of investigation, even minor things like complaints of noise or a suspicious vehicle.
"Every citizen contact, it's mandated to be on," he said.
The videos will automatically upload to Evidence.com, Taser's cloud storage site for body camera videos. They are backed up on three servers across the county.
Police will save for longer any videos relevant to investigations, but all other videos are deleted after 90 days and are impossible to retrieve, Monaghan said. A directive on body cameras from the attorney general's office says the videos must be saved for at least that long, but Monaghan said storing the videos for longer than that is expensive.
The directive also requires departments to save some videos for specific lengths of time. For instance, a video showing an officer's use of force should be saved until the statute of limitations for filing a civil complaint expires.
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When will the camera be shut off?
Anytime an officer decides to shut off his or her body camera, he or she must articulate the reason on the video before hitting the off button.
If a victim or someone reporting a crime is afraid of speaking to an officer because of the camera, the officer is allowed to turn it off, but can also refuse, Monaghan said.
Capt. Amy Winters said if an officer is responding to the school for a call, the camera will be on, but may be shut off as soon as the situation is resolved. Officers also do regular "walk throughs" of the schools, she said, and their cameras will not be on at those times unless an incident arises.
The attorney general's directive states that the same policy should apply when an officer is entering a school, youth facility, healthcare facility, substance abuse treatment facility, or place of worship. State laws protect the privacy of people in medical and substance abuse treatment facilities.
Corrien Green-Elmore, a resident and director of youth intervention at the YMCA of Burlington and Camden Counties, said after the meeting that she had asked about the policy in schools because she was curious whether the walk-throughs would be recorded and how police would deal with all the privacy issues regarding children at the facility.
She said she was also interested to hear that the rules would also apply at hospitals, because there are times when police have to deal with people in those settings with mental health issues.
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"Anytime there can be more transparency, that makes more sense for everyone," she said.
Monaghan said his department is still consulting with the attorney general's office about when and how to release videos requested under the Open Public Records Act.
"It will have to be a case-by-case basis, but we're not giving anything out without conversations with our legal team at town hall and the prosecutor's office," he said.
And even if a video is released, he said, the department's policy will be to blur the faces of any juveniles or victims, using Taser's redaction software.
He said the department policy, modeled on the attorney general's directive, will be finalized soon as the department is still receiving and reviewing feedback.
Getting started
The chief said the department received all the cameras earlier this week and will train officers to use them by the end of the month. Some officers will start using the cameras the first week of October, he said, and everyone will use them by the end of the month.
The body camera program is going to cost roughly $800,000 over the next five years. The first year's cost will be completely covered by state and federal grants, Monaghan said, plus an $84,000 match from the departments confiscated funds.
With a full warranty, the cameras will be replaced with the newest models every 2 1/2 years.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.