MPD: Add police accountability to your body camera policy

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Below is an example of an email you can send to the Minneapolis Police Department. Feel free to edit it to be in your words. We'll immediately send the email to MPD and your name will automatically be added to the end.

Dear Chief Harteau,

I am writing to demand that you update the MPD draft body camera police to include strong police accountability measures, such as those recommended by the Minneapolis Police Oversight Commission.

Specifically, MPD's police worn body camera policy should: 1) Require SWAT to wear body cameras. 2) If footage is not available for an incident that, according to the policy, should have been recorded, there should be an evidentiary presumption in favor of the civilian, in criminal, civil or administrative proceedings. The Police Conduct Oversight Commission made this recommendation last summer and it is critical to ensuring public accountability and protecting our civil rights. 3) Enforce strict disciplinary protocols for policy violations, particular for improper camera activation or deactivation. 4) Preserve the independent evidentiary value of officer reports by prohibiting officers from viewing footage before filing their reports. Footage of an event presents a partial—and sometimes misleading—perspective of how events unfolded. Pre-report viewing could cause an officer to conform the report to what the video appears to show, rather than what the officer actually saw. This commitment is crucial to ensuring that these technologies enhance civil liberties and don’t further discriminatory policing.

I will not accept a MPD body camera policy that does not provide the strongest possible civilian protections and rigid police accountability measures.  I strongly encourage you to do the right thing and add these recommendations to MPD's draft policy.

Sincerely,

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MPD: Add police accountability to your body camera policy

We need a body camera policy that works for the Minneapolis community by holding police accountable, not one that gives police more ways to cover up their brutality. And we can still bring about a body camera policy that works for us, but only if we act now.

Tell Chief Harteau to immediately add strong police accountability measures to MPD's draft body camera policy.