Audit finds problems with documentation, filing of videos from Fountain officer body cameras
The Fountain Police Department says an audit found that in many cases, videos that have been recorded by officer body cameras have not been documented on police reports or transferred into evidence.
Videos that are not transferred to evidence within 180 days are deleted.
The department is working to reconcile undocumented videos with corresponding calls for service. It says the process involves matching time stamps to officer camera assignments, then viewing the video to verify it corresponds with the call for service.
Videos that have been deleted cannot be recovered.
Fountain police officers began wearing body cameras in 2014. For the system to work, officers had to download their videos into a server and then go back later to add descriptive information. The system also required documenting the videos in their reports and filing them into evidence.
The Fountain Police Department now says it feels it is important to find a system that will apply the metadata to the video without officers having to do it manually. Because of this, it is asking for money to join the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado Springs Police Department in coming up with a regional body worn camera system that is integrated with the computer aided dispatch.
