Washougal police chief says new body-worn cameras ‘improve civility’

The Washougal Police Department’s (WPD) body-worn camera program has improved the civility of encounters and helped mitigate and protect against frivolous complaints since its inception in June 2023, according to Washougal Police Chief Wendi Steinbronn.

“This isn’t a true story for all agencies, but for our agency, I think the camera system has improved civility on both sides,” Steinbronn said during a Washougal City Council workshop on Sept. 23. “People are remembering to be polite, or if they complain about something the officer said or did, we’re able to watch (the encounter) and immediately determine whether (the alleged action) happened or not.”

The department contracted with Arizona-based Axon in 2022 to provide the equipment for a program to meet new state requirements for recording custodial interviews.

The videos provide “best evidence” for court cases; aid investigations of use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints; and assist in training situations, Steinbronn said.

“They also help improve the quality of detail and reporting,” she said. “If I’m going to write my report and I want to quote what someone said and I’m like, ‘I can’t remember the exact wording,’ I can just go back and look at (the video), and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s right,’ and then I can put that in.”

The camera program strives to effectively document in-person law enforcement-related community contacts; promote public trust; ensure officer and public safety; improve transparency of operations; enhance evidence collection and scene management; aid in prosecution of criminal offenses; and provide training feedback, according to Steinbronn.

“We are using it to enhance the accountability of everyone involved and reduce complaints,” Steinbronn said. “Most of the interactions where people complain about either courtesy or procedure, we’re able to go back and look at the camera and instantly ascertain that, yes, this did occur, but it was within our policy, so it’s not a violation, or the event happened, and the complaining party’s perception of it is not what is (shown on the video). It’s been helpful in (those situations).”

The WPD currently has 23 cameras (18 deployed) and three docking stations, and has generated 8,180 working videos, 79 test videos, and 160 training videos since June 2023, partnering with four neighboring agencies and two prosecuting attorney’s offices.

“Everyone that’s working has been issued their own camera,” Steinbronn said. “We purchased a contract with Axon that allows us unlimited storage, and I think that was a smart move because I know some smaller agencies went with manufacturers (with) pay-as-you-go storage, and some of them have not been able to sustain their program because the cost of storage is so high. I’m glad we spent a little bit more money up front, but it’s really paying off.”

WPD policy states that the cameras should be activated in any of the following situations:

• All enforcement and investigative contacts, including calls for service, stops, and field interview situations;

• Traffic stops including, but not limited to, traffic violations, stranded motorist assistance, and crime interdiction;

• Self-initiated activity in which a member would normally notify the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency; and

• Any other contact that becomes adversarial after the initial contact in a situation that would not otherwise require recording.

“Basically, we have to turn it on when we have contact with the public that’s related to police work — (for example), when you’re checking on a suspicious person or suspicious auto,” Steinbronn said. “When I’m in Starbucks and people want to ask me a question, I don’t turn the camera on, but if the discussion kind of gets hostile and I think, ‘Oh, this is not going to a good place,’ then I can … activate it.”

The cameras are equipped with advanced features, including high-definition video recording, improved low-light capabilities, and integrated audio recording.

“And they’ve worked well,” Steinbronn said. “We’ve had very little issues with them.”

Steinbronn said that the main concerns that WPD officers have heard from Washougal residents about the cameras are “that we’re sharing all the data that we can legally share, and that individual officers cannot tamper with or delete footage.”

“In fact,” Steinbronn said, “they don’t have permission to even delete if they wanted to, except for the admins. … If anything gets deleted, there is a lot of trail that shows what was deleted, and we are required by policy to enter notes as to why we did so. There’s no going in there and changing footage.

“We can redact footage if the law requires certain images or audio to be redacted — death scenes and nudity, for instance. (But) we can’t change it,” she said.

The program was funded by a combination of grants and the 2022 Clark County public safety tax, which distributed collected revenue to cities for body-worn camera programs.

“The grant was only a two-year grant, so we had to spend the money by the end of this year,” Steinbronn said. “So what we did was, we paid off our contract. … Everything that we can spend on the grant has been spent this year.”