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Los Angeles police to use body camera

Xinhua, September 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Los Angeles police officers are going to wear body cameras in patrol, as one of three police divisions began to receive the new equipment Monday and the other two are going to receive it next month.

Patrol officers at the Mission Division in the San Fernando Valley were the first to receive the cameras. Officers at the Newton Division will receive them on Sept. 15 and the Central traffic and specialized divisions on Sept. 28.

A total of 860 such cameras will be delivered to the three Los Angeles Police Department divisions over the next month, local media reported.

The Taser body cameras are designed to be worn on the chest.

Under a policy adopted by the Police Commission in April, police officers must activate the body cameras before an investigation or enforcement action begins, such as vehicle or pedestrian stops, car and foot chases, searches, arrests, use-of-force, witness and victim interviews, and crowd control.

If an officer is unable to activate the camera in time, or if the camera fails to record, the officer must note the reasons and circumstances in a daily log.

Under the rules, officers will be allowed to stop recording if the witnesses or victims being interviewed say they will not make a statement on camera, and as long as the encounter is not confrontational.

Officers can decide not to record if they feel it would interfere with an investigation -- such as in a rape, incest or sexual assault cases -- or due to a victim's or witness' age, emotional or physical state or other sensitive factors.

They can also deactivate the camera if they feel the life of an undercover officer or informant is in danger, and if they are in a health-care area with patients or at a rape treatment center.

The cameras were purchased using 1.5 million dollars in private donations raised by the Los Angeles Police Foundation.

The city is also considering purchasing another 7,000 cameras to outfit the entire police department at a cost of about 10 million dollars.

Funding was included in this year's city budget but has not been appropriated, with city officials still waiting on federal grants that they hope will pay for half of the costs.

Some critics, however, said the cameras will not provide the "transparency" they are looking for because the footage is not likely to be available to the general public. Endi