A community meeting was held Tuesday at Moreland Park to discuss the proposed Breonna’s Law — which would prevent no-knock warrants and require all law enforcement to use body cameras. Current and retired police officers were present at Tuesday’s meeting to discuss the plausibility of implementing body cams for the Owensboro Police Department.
According to OPD Field Services Commander Major J.D. Winkler, OPD’s current lack of body cameras did not stem from the department not wanting them. In fact, Winkler said it was just the opposite.
“I do not know of a single officer that does not want us to have body cams,” he said. “The reality is, there’s financial burdens. And there’s some underlying factors as well when it comes to open records aspects of it.”
The primary issue regarding open records and body cams stemmed from privacy issues, Winkler said.
“We can’t just have it open where the media comes in and files an open records request for all the video over 30 days,” he said. “It is almost impossible, and extremely manpower-intensive, to redact everything on there to make sure that social security numbers aren’t revealed, to make sure juvenile’s pictures aren’t shown.”
With OPD answering more than 800 calls a week, Winkler said the logistics behind the use of body cams and open records requests would have to be thoroughly worked out ahead of time. However, he said OPD was continuing to evaluate the plausibility of implementing body cameras.
Retired OPD Detective Sgt. and City Commission candidate Mike Walker said he agreed body cameras were a necessity, but that there are also issues with legislation.
“So if you have a mandate saying, ‘You gotta have these cameras,’ there’s legislation out there saying the state should pay for them. So there’s going to be issues with funding,” he said. “But there’s absolutely a need for all of our officers to wear body cameras.”
Historically, one of the issues with body cameras comes from officers who forget to turn them on. Under Breonna’s Law, Walker said that issue would be addressed.
“Under Breonna’s Law, you have five minutes to turn the camera on before [taking action at a scene] and you leave it on for five minutes after,” Walker said.
Walker also brought up community-oriented policing during the meeting.
“We need a police model where we have, in our high-crime areas, officers who know the community, who are engaged in the community, and who know the people — where the people aren’t afraid to pick up the telephone and give them a call without fear of retaliation,” he said.
Walker said he also supported making Owensboro a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), as well as implementing a five-person Police Merit Board that would be used to address any alleged police misconduct. Board members would include one city commissioner, two active police officers and two people from the community who would be trained to understand police protocols.
“If it’s a significant enough issue, that merit board would receive the information. It would take City Hall out of the equation,” he said. “That board would determine the fate of that officer.”
Tuesday’s meeting was hosted by a newly formed organization known as The Black Lives Matter-Owensboro, Ky. Chapter.
Breonna’s Law, sponsored by Rep. Attica Scott, would “ban dangerous no-knock warrants; require police officers to have and use body cameras while interacting with the public; allow agencies to discipline police officers for failing to use body cameras; allow lawsuits against any state and local government official who deprives people of their civil rights under color of law; and require police officers involved in shootings or other deadly incidents to submit to drug and alcohol testing within two hours of the incident.”
