Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday signed into law a bill requiring police officers be trained on exactly when they can and cannot pause their body-worn cameras.
Under existing law, police officers have discretion on when they can pause audio and video recording if they believe such recording would hinder an investigation. The new legislation gives the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council, or POST, until October to develop mandatory guidelines.
State Sen. Gary Winfield (D-New Haven), chair of the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee and champion of legislation that began requiring police body camera usage in Connecticut in 2021, said the law will be helpful to both the public and the police.
“Body-worn cameras are the way in which we can get to the bottom of what actually has happened,” Winfield said. “I think it’s important because there are real things that happen that we don’t want to happen, but there are also folks who say things about our police that aren’t accurate, and we need to know what’s really happening.”
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“I want folks to have a real sense that when we say that the majority of police officers are doing their job in exactly the way that they’re supposed to do it, that that’s true,” he said.
The legislation, which passed unanimously in both the state House and Senate, was supported before passage by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. ACLU CT Policy Counsel Jess Zaccagnino testified before the Judiciary Committee in support of the bill.
“If police officers are given discretion as to when to turn on and off their cameras and key moments go uncaptured when violence erupts, they will cause harm,” Zaccagnino testified. “For example, when police officers fail to turn on body cameras before shooting or injuring someone, they put courts at risk of reaching catastrophically unjust results. A guilty police officer, someone with enormous power, could escape liability, and an innocent person could be wrongfully convicted.”
A spokesperson for POST said the agency does not take a position on legislation.
This story was first published May 17, 2024 by Connecticut Public.