B Y K E L LY K E N O Y E R
CAUGHT ON
CAMERA
Critics question effectiveness in
preventing police misconduct
E
ugene Police Department has implemented a man-
datory, department-wide $750,000 body camera
program for all on-duty officers, but critics wonder
if the new program will prevent police misconduct.
The 162 camera systems, purchased from Axon
(formerly TASER), feature front-facing cameras that will
be worn throughout each shift. The cameras are to be
turned on for the duration of each police interaction with
someone suspected to have committed a crime, all stops
for violations of Oregon Vehicle Code, and investigative
encounters with suspects, witnesses, complainants and vic-
tims.
Police officers will also record consensu-
al encounters where the officer “will attempt to
develop a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity about
the subject encountered,” and when a person is in custody,
being detained or transported in a patrol vehicle.
Officers are encouraged to record whenever they be-
lieve an event should be audibly or visually documented,
and whenever a civilian alleges bias. The officer is re-
quired to inform those they interact with that they are being
recorded. Officers can turn their own cameras on and off,
but are then required to explain why an interaction wasn’t
recorded to their supervisor.
Eugene Police Auditor Mark Gissiner says the body
worn cameras are a useful tool for his office when investi-
gating allegations of police misconduct. His office has al-
ready dismissed several complaints based on the available
video. “I have full access to anything I want,” he adds.
Gissiner says the biggest issue with the new policy may
be implementation and training.
“It needs to become routine, like
tying your shoes in the morn-
ing.” Gissiner says the cams
will lead to “more transparency,
certainly more accountability
through my office, more under-
standing for the public of what
the officers deal with.”
He adds that things will like-
ly be “easier on a prosecution
standpoint, probably easier on
a complaint mitigation stand-
A T TO R N E Y
point, probably easier on an of-
ficer safety standpoint, and hon-
estly a significant training tool
for officers.”
Gissiner points to a Rialto,
California, police department
study that showed a 59 percent
drop in use of force and a 87 percent drop in complaints
against police when officers wore body cameras.
Attorney Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense
Center (CLDC) says these body cams might not be such a
boon for the rights of civilians. “The officers control the
cameras,” Regan says. “They are able to turn them on an
off, they are able to control their upload, they are pointing
away from the officer and toward others.”
The Lane County chapter of the NAACP supports the
police body cameras and signed the application for federal
funding of the new policy, which came in the form of a
$249,000 grant matched by the Eugene City Council.
Chapter president Eric Richardson writes in an email:
“We are happy to see this roll out. However, we will con-
tinue to monitor the effectiveness of the program in re-
lationship to giving citizens a sense of transparency and
trust.” He adds, “Ultimately the program depends on hon-
est, well-trained officers who understand they will benefit
from the increased trust in their ability to perform their du-
ties in a professional and transparent way.”
Gissiner says that officers don’t record at all times be-
cause of the “astronomical” cost of storing data. “I suppose
you could put a measure on the ballot to see if voters want
to pay millions to store all this stuff,” he says.
ld be
‘I think we wou
lying
ill-served by re
police
on the state to
ver
itself. That’s ne
lution
been a good so
nduct.’
to police misco
GAN
LAUREN RE
ists.”
Regan emphasizes the importance of citizens taping
police-civilian interactions whenever possible, because
non-police video can make for some of the most compel-
ling evidence when prosecuting police officers. “There is a
public right to record cops, but you cannot abuse that right
by being so in the face of a cop that it interferes with his
ability to do his work,” Regan says.
Citizens are legally required to follow lawful orders to
step back while an officer is doing their duty.
Regan says police misconduct cases are often an uphill
battle. “Especially since a lot of the victims in these cases
are people of color, I think a lot of racial bias comes into
play in the courtroom,” she says.
In high profile police shooting cases like that of Philan-
do Castile, the aftermath of whose shooting in Minnesota
was streamed on Facebook Live, Regan says the fact that
there wasn’t a conviction “doesn’t negate in any way the
fact that a person of color lost their life to an officer who
was sworn to protect and serve.”
Regan adds, “I think we would be ill-served by relying
on the state to police itself. That’s never been a good solu-
tion to police misconduct.”
June 29, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
BY PAUL NEEVEL
HAPPENING PEOPLE
JANET CALVERT
8
Regan of the CLDC adds that
the body worn cameras “may as-
sist the police in prosecuting oth-
ers and protecting themselves in
police misconduct cases.”
Though the cameras may
capture police misconduct, Re-
gan says the police currently
record audio anyway. But when
she asks for audio evidence
when handling police miscon-
duct cases, “There have been
a number of instances where
digital evidence has been lost,
destroyed, rendered inoperable,
especially in my experience
when we request in car video or
video of the jail. Often we are
told for one reason or another
that the evidence no longer ex-
In November of 2016, the League of Women Voters of
Lane County named Janet Calvert as recipient of its
Annabel Kitzhaber Education and Advocacy Award,
honoring her long commitment to the community. A
third-generation Oregonian, Calvert grew up in Tigard.
“I had a 4H home-ec project,” she says. “I raised five
dairy cows in seventh grade.” She majored in home
economics at Oregon State, then worked as an OSU
Extension agent in Malheur County, where she taught
moms to be 4H leaders, and where she met her
husband, Leonard Calvert, at the time a reporter for
the Ontario Observer. They spent a year in Tillamook
and four years in Corvallis, then settled in Eugene
in 1965 and raised two sons, Timothy and Douglas.
Janet Calvert joined the board of the local League
of Women voters in 1968. “They needed someone
for the tax committee,” she says. “I got involved in
state and local tax studies.” Later, she took part in the
effort to build a new jail for the city and county, and
she subsequently served on the state Jail Standards
Committee. She spent ten years on the board of the
Lane Transit District and fifteen years working in a
food and nutrition program for limited-income families
at the local OSU Extension office. An avid gardener at
home and a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church
on Coburg Road, she was instrumental in transform-
ing the church’s unused 2.5-acre back lot into the
Grassroots Garden in 1990. Leased for a dollar a year
to FOOD for Lane County and powered by volunteer la-
bor, the garden currently produces 30 tons of organic
produce a year for people in need.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY INFORMATION
Seneca Jones Timber Company, 541-689-
1011, plans to spray 93.4 acres about one mile
south of Hamm Road and two miles east
(corrected from west) of Territorial Highway with
a broad range of chemicals. See ODF notification
2017-781-07685, call Brian Peterson at 541-
935-2283 with questions.
William Bronson, 541-746-7214, plans to
spray 18.1 acres near McBeth Road with triclopyr
with amine, 2,4-D with amine and/or imazapyr.
See ODF notification 2017-781-07915, call Brian
Peterson at 541-935-2283 with questions.
Oregon Department of Forestry, 541-932-
2283, plans to hire Nick’s Timber Services, 541-
910-1120, to spray a total of 272.6 acres on 7
units near Nelson Mountain Road, Little Beech
Creek, Knapp Creek, Badger Mountain and Moke
Road with imazapyr. See ODF notification 2017-
781-08023, call 541-935-2283 with questions.
Camas Creek Resources, 541-521-5897,
plans to hire Nick’s Timber Services, 541-910-
1120, to spray 34.5 acres near Fish Creek with
clopyralid, glyphosate, hexazinone, imazapyr,
sulfometuron methyl, triclopyr with acid and/or
MSO Concentrate. See ODF notification 2017-
781-07906, call Robin Biesecker at 541-935-
2283 with questions.