Los Angeles County\u2019s jails are set to be under the watch of thousands of new digital eyes.<\/p>\n
The L.A. County Sheriff\u2019s Department has purchased 4,641 body-worn cameras for deputies to wear in the facilities, which have seen a spike in inmate deaths this year.<\/p>\n
The department has also reached an agreement to implement the technology with the labor unions that represent its employees, according to a recent report<\/a> by the office of Inspector General Max Huntsman.<\/p>\n The rollout of the cameras began Oct. 1 at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Men\u2019s Central Jail, Inmate Reception Center, and the Century Regional Detention Facility, the department said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe use of body worn cameras will help to improve officer safety, evidence quality, transparency, and accountability,\u201d the department said in a statement Thursday, adding that body-worn and CCTV cameras \u201cwill be impactful for investigations, thus enhancing transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates and oversight officials hailed the arrival of the cameras as a positive development, but said questions remain about whether they will be used effectively.<\/p>\n Huntsman said body-worn cameras add a level of accountability beyond that provided by the jails\u2019 existing CCTV systems by capturing audio, showing angles that fixed cameras can\u2019t capture and creating new evidence to support or disprove claims of misconduct and other wrongdoing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the challenge will be getting them trained up on it, making sure they turn them on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Problems with body-worn cameras remain, even when they are charged and running, Huntsman said. For instance, someone needs to actually watch the video they record in order for it to be beneficial.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a good incremental improvement,\u201d he said. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s overshadowed by the fact that we have and we have had extensive camera coverage of the jails but nobody watches them in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, agreed, adding that the Sheriff\u2019s Department has a history of not thoroughly reviewing video and failing to hold deputies accountable for improper use of force and other wrongdoing \u2014 even when it\u2019s caught on camera.<\/p>\n