PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island is urging the Providence police to more vigorously enforce the department’s officer body camera policy, citing several instances when it was violated.
“The body camera policy is regularly flouted, violations are rarely punished, and the transparency these cameras are supposed to provide the public is undermined,” the ACLU wrote in a letter to Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré and police chief Col. Hugh Clements Jr., Executive Director Steven Brown said in a statement Monday.
Brown is asking the department to establish a “more vigorous audit process, to hold officers responsible for violating the department’s body camera policy.”
The department disciplined 20 officers for failing to activate their body cameras since January 2018, the ACLU said. In each case, the officers received nothing more than verbal reprimands.
Three officers who responded to a moped crash in October that severely injured a man were accused of not turning on their body cameras.
Clements told WPRI-TV in a statement that the department’s “goal is to condition officers to turn them on routinely during those situations required by policy.” He said the department conducts regular internal audits and compliance checks.
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