50 signatures reached
To: Rick Kriseman, Mayor, St. Petersburg, FL
Body Cameras for the St. Petersburg Police Department
Accountability is a must in public safety. Require St. Petersburg Police Department officers to wear body cameras. Request that city council adds the cost in the 2019 city budget. Body cameras are a very vital part in the storytelling aspect of police interactions with the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve.
"In a field experiment conducted by the Rialto, Calif. Police Department, it was found that when police were equipped with cameras during the test period, use of force incidents and citizen complaints against officers were reduced by 50 and 90 percent respectively"
Proper guidelines for body camera use are already in force for the state of Florida.
(HB 93) (2016) requires law enforcement agencies that permit their officers to wear body cameras to establish policies for their proper use, maintenance, and storage of their data.
"In a field experiment conducted by the Rialto, Calif. Police Department, it was found that when police were equipped with cameras during the test period, use of force incidents and citizen complaints against officers were reduced by 50 and 90 percent respectively"
Proper guidelines for body camera use are already in force for the state of Florida.
(HB 93) (2016) requires law enforcement agencies that permit their officers to wear body cameras to establish policies for their proper use, maintenance, and storage of their data.
Why is this important?
Given the St. Petersburg's Police Departments past history of killing an unarmed motorist and its recent controversial interaction with another citizen, they can not be trusted nor expected to monitor their own behavior without additional tools such as body cameras.