PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A previously controversial recommendation made 10 years ago by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) has found new traction in the release of a recent report.

In the report titled, “Body-Worn Cameras A Decade Later: What We Know,” PERF, an organization of law enforcement dedicated to improving current policing policies, outlines that officers should not be allowed to review body camera footage before making statements about an incident.

“When you have the body-worn camera footage, you have a number of things going on,” said Chuck Wexler, PERF’s Executive Director, “When you have an incident, you have the perception that the officer has when the incident occurs, and then you have the footage, and then maybe you have analysis. With this model, you have what we call a perceptual interview in which the officer simply writes down what he or she thought happened. The second part of it is they will then be allowed to look at the video and then add additional information.”

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Some against the policy worry of officers being seen as deceitful, should their report vary from the footage. But Wexler argues that should not matter in the interest of community safety.

“In fact, I think the win-win situation is to simply tell the truth and say, ‘This is what I saw…’ The point is you’re trying to get at the truth.”

The statistics show this is steadily becoming a trend. In a survey conducted by PERF, 93% of departments used to have the policy of allowing officers to view the video. But over the years, that number has dropped to around 53%

Ten years before, PERF had written the guidelines for the Justice Department to review. But in the time since, PERF brought together several police executives and other experts to Washington D.C. to talk to the Department of Justice about needed changes to policing.

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According to Wexler, based on that meeting and research conducted, they decided it was time to produce a report identifying the strengths and weaknesses of body-worn cameras and their use in police departments across the country, including Portland Police Bureau.

“I think what happened up in Portland had an influence on our thinking,” said Wexler,” We believe the Portland model, if you will, really made a lot of sense.”

The body-worn cameras policy was approved by Portland City Council in April of this year and tested during the pilot program, which ran from August to October 2023.

According to PPB, the body-worn cameras captured over 29,000 videos in this testing phase. They hope to go to the DOJ in mid-January to get approval from them on any requested changes. These mostly pertain to user-friendliness and logistics, according to Portland Police Association’s Aaron Schmautz.

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“Most of the issues we had were just kind of low-level,” said Schmautz. “For instance, recording the drive to a call when you’re driving in traffic for 45 minutes. It’s a bit silly, it’s expensive to maintain that data.”

But one big concern involves keeping to a timeline in a case investigation.

“In Portland here, we are required to interview people within a short period of time,” added Schmautz, “Ensuring that the investigators can prepare for those interviews by viewing all the videos present and also ensure that the people who are allowed to watch them can. It’s a very very big lift, so that part still has to be navigated.”

Regardless, Schmautz believes those involved are motivated to, “get this thing done as quickly is possible.” Hopefully, with full implementation by Summer 2024.

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