Seattle WA Feb 13, 2008
As leaders in Seattle and elsewhere call for stronger police accountability, three former Seattle officers hope to cash in on that movement with an action cam for police.
The officers’ fledgling company, VIEVU, has developed a small, wireless digital camera that could be a tool to record officers’ interactions during an arrest or traffic stop.
The camera is lightweight, about the size of a pager, and waterproof — the latter feature being something that officers on Seattle’s rainy beat know is paramount, said Chris Myers, who ended his 18-year police career in January to join VIEVU.
The PVR-LE easily clips onto an officer’s lapel or belt. The 4-gigabyte hard drive records up to four hours of video.
If someone accuses an officer of wrongdoing, the camera should reveal the truth. Or, maybe it could help bolster a case if it records a drunken driver slurring through obscenities, its developers say.
“The public likes it because it provides another level of accountability, and police like it because it’s protection for their actions,” said Myers, whose specialty in the department was testing and training officers on less lethal technologies such as Tasers.
VIEVU, with an office in lower Queen Anne, is waiting for the manufacturer to complete production. The former officers hope to start filling shelves and distributing later this month.
The company enters the scene as many police agencies, including Seattle, have equipped patrol cars with dashboard cameras, which film during traffic stops but can’t follow the officer’s movement very far from the car.
Myers sees personal point-of-view cameras as the next progression. There already are similar cameras on the market, but they are wired through an officer’s microphone.
The Seattle Police Department has seen a model of VIEVU’s product and is interested in examining the working version. But the department has no immediate plans to equip officers with such cameras, although it might be interested in testing the product, Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer said.
“I think it’s safe to say we’re very interested in technology that promotes officer safety and accountability,” Kimerer said.
Myers said the partners, including Steve Ward, VIEVU’s founder, and Tom Burns, the sales director, were involved in the Police Department’s task force for testing less-lethal technologies. He described his group as “less-lethal geeks.”
In 2005, Myers and Burns co-founded CRT Less Lethal Inc., a consulting firm on force options for police officers.
With their contacts, the former officers have spoken with interested police agencies around the country, Myers said. They displayed their product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, where it was named the CES POD “Pick of the Day” by slashdotreview.com.
Ward, a 14-year officer and former SWAT team member, initially left the department to work as vice president of marketing and international sales for Taser International, which developed the controversial stun guns used by many police agencies.
Developing and marketing the camera doesn’t bring the same controversy, which Ward appreciates, he said.
“I’m very, very happy to have a no-stress product,” Ward said.
Seattle police moved to in-car digital cameras four years ago amid concerns over misconduct and racial profiling, and some officers were apprehensive about the “Big Brother” aspect, Myers said.
Among their concerns was whether tactics could be misinterpreted, such as using street slang during the course of their work, he said.
But they soon discovered the value of cameras when someone falsely accused them of misconduct, Myers said.
“If I’m out there doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I have nothing to fear from it,” he said.
As patrol car cameras became more common in 2004, the International Association of Chiefs of Police sponsored a study that found 93 percent of police-misconduct cases in which video is available result in the officer’s exoneration.
Cameras also serve as a deterrent. Fifty-one percent of residents acknowledged that they would be more watchful of their own behavior if an officer warned them in advance that they were being recorded.
“People act differently on camera. If a police officer comes up to you and says, ‘This is being recorded,’ you’re likely to be much more congenial,” Ward said.
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs hasn’t explored the personal camera issue and doesn’t have any recommendations, Executive Director Don Pierce said.
Pierce personally worries that the ability to film every interaction could raise expectations about evidence that complicates the problem cameras were meant to solve, he said. For instance, if the camera malfunctions, or an officer forgets to turn it on, how does that affect the officer’s credibility?
“You have to go into it with your eyes open and how it could lead to something that’s very onerous and only marginally raises police accountability,” he said.
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