In a meeting primarily devoted to the Redding Police Department, the City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to equip officers with body cameras and lauded the police chief for his energetic response to citizens’ concerns about the city’s growing crime rate.
Chief Robert Paoletti was given permission to spend $250,000 on the cameras and data storage computers, with the money coming from the $376,000 on the books in the city’s federal asset seizure account.
Paoletti said his department has been investigating body cameras for several months. The cost of the small devices has come down as more vendors enter the market, he said, adding that the cameras “are becoming the industry standard” in law enforcement.
Video recordings of all enforcement actions and interviews provide the city with an effective defense from claims and lawsuits while providing “investigators, prosecutors, and juries with far more detailed, accurate, and compelling evidence,” Paoletti said in his staff report.
“This is not a panacea,” Paoletti cautioned, noting that “devices fail and humans make mistakes.” The city will have to develop policies that determine how long the recordings are stored and when the recordings can be released. If 50 officers are equipped with cameras and the data is kept for 13 months, the city will need to secure 40 to 50 terabytes of storage space at a cost of about $75,000, the chief said.
“I have good people working in my department,” Paoletti emphasized, telling the council that he is pursuing body cameras not out of a lack of trust in his troops but as “the best way to protect my offers from lawsuits.”
“A lot of lawsuits and court cases go away with documentation of the crime,” said Councilwoman Missy McArthur, who moved to OK the expenditure.
The council also voted unanimously to accept Paoletti’s four-page action plan, which was separated into measures already in progress; measures that would require some additional funding; measures available with an additional $2.5 million; and measures that would be possible with a $5 million boost to the department’s budget.
In-progress measures include a bike patrol, a homeless outreach program, partnerships with community groups, a revitalized Neighborhood Watch effort and a social media strategy. A limited funding increase could result in a community survey, a volunteer patrol program, a nonprofit detox center to free up jail space and a moveable camera system.
With a $2.5 million bump, Paoletti said he’d recruit and hire 11 Community Service Officers (CSOs) and eight officers; with an additional $5 million, he said he’d like to add four more CSOs and nine more officers.
The $5 million figure is the amount expected to be generated if Measure F—a proposed quarter-cent sales tax hike to augment Redding’s crime prevention efforts—is approved by 66 percent of Redding’s voters in the Nov. 4 election.
In other action Tuesday, the council:
–Voted unanimously to amend the city’s drought management plan and lower the fine for violations of the mandatory conservation rules. After a total of four warnings, the first violation will result in a $50 fine; a second will be $75; and a third will be $100. “We think that’s sufficient to get people’s attention” City Attorney Rick Duvernay said.
At its Aug. 5 meeting, the council adopted an emergency ordinance to enforce water conservation in order to comply with a mandate from the California Water Resources Control Board. At that time, the city’s ordinance called for a $275 fine for any violation.
Details of the city’s plan and its odd-even “Window of Watering Opportunity” rules are available by visiting the city’s Web site here.
Jon Lewis is a freelance writer living in Redding. He has more than 30 years experience writing for newspapers and magazines. Contact him at jonpaullewis@gmail.com.
