New Civil Rights Scorecard Gives Mixed Reviews of Body Cameras

Police departments were evaluated on criteria such as whether they make footage available and if they prohibit officers from viewing footage before writing a report

Data analysis company Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights and Upturn has evaluated policies of 50 police departments and issued a scorecard on body cameras, according to NBC News. 

The departments were evaluated on eight different criteria including whether they make the footage available to people filing complaints and if they prohibit officers from viewing footage before writing a report. 

The report shows a "nationwide failure to honor basic civil rights and privacy protections," Wayne Henderson, CEO of the council, said.

Cities such as Baton Rouge, Minneapolis and Baltimore don’t make their body camera program policies available on their website, according to the report. Detroit and Pittsburgh don’t make their policies available at all.

And there is no department with a definite limitation on officers reviewing footage before writing reports, according to the report, although six departments, including Washington D.C., have some form of prohibition in place.

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