Colorado Dept. Of Corrections Spends $500k On Body Cams Before Deciding No Officers Need To Wear Them

Even though corrections officers seem to feel these devices will help them more than they will hurt them, the Colorado Department of Corrections has decided it's not going to equip officers with body cameras. This is a pretty terrible outcome, especially since the DOC has spent a couple years and half-million dollars on build-up before unceremoniously dropping the program.

The reasons for equipping probation and corrections officers make sense. An earlier report on body cam use in youth correction programs pointed out some very positive outcomes. In response to a scathing oversight report, the head of Youth Services said as recently as last July that the state's youth correction programs would actually benefit from the use of body cams.

Cameras inside the state's youth detention centers capture video, but not audio, which means any investigation into the use of restraints or physical force against youth is incomplete, the ombudsman said in a fierybriefissued Tuesday.

In response, the director of the Division of Youth Services said he's already working on it. Anders Jacobson told The Colorado Sun that he is making plans to buy tiny cameras that attach to belt loops and discreetly collect video and audio of encounters between employees and young people who are in detention.

Adding cameras to the mix would help confirm or deny claims made against corrections officers (several complaints of excessive force and racist language have been made by inmates), as well as provide coverage (and audio) in areas where cameras aren't in place.

Even if corrections officers believe cameras are just out to get them," their mere presence tends to have a deterrent effect on violent acts by inmates.

In Ohio, staff at the Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility began wearing cameras in 2022 after 12 youths barricaded themselves in a school building. Within a year, the center reported a 31% decrease in violence against staff.

If nothing else, this sort of data should have nudged the Colorado DOC towards deployment of the hundreds of cameras it already had on hand. Add to that the unexpected situations that can develop when parole and probation officers visit private homes to check on former inmates and it would seem to be a no-brainer. Everyone involved needs footage of these ultimate invasions of privacy: the warrantless search of homes under the exceptions provided by probation/parole law.

That much was made clear by a parole officer interviewed by CBS during its investigation:

Are you post [Peace Officer Standards and Training] certified? Are you a peace officer?" CBS Colorado Investigator Karen Morfitt asked a Colorado Department of Corrections community parole officer who asked not to be identified.

I am," he said.

Do you wear a body worn camera?" Morfitt asked.

I don't."

Why is that?"

That's a great question."

The man says he's not willing to show his face on television because he's worried about possible retaliation.

I think that the things we go into - into these homes, probably we should have cameras on," he said.

Well, for all these reasons and LESS, the DOC has decided none of its officers should wear body cams because... state law says they don't have to.

I received an email from CDOC stating that we were turning in all of our cameras," the man said.

That email from director Andre Stancil says they are pausing the pilot program."

[In] the same email, detailing the end of the pilot program, the DOC director explains this legislation does not specifically mandate the use of BWC's for the Colorado Department of Corrections, division of adult parole."

That's apparently all that matters: it's not mandatory, so it's not going to happen, even though the DOC already has hundreds of cameras sitting on shelves and corrections officers expressing their desire to have more documentation of their interactions with inmates and parolees.

So, instead of officers perhaps being given the opportunity to deter violence against them or counter complaints made against them, the status quo remains in place. But it won't be the correctional officers who suffer most from this non-decision. It will be the people they oversee - people who are nearly completely powerless under the law and whose abuse at the hands of the state will continue in places cameras can't see (or hear) - areas that include their own homes.