Body camera problems plague Fountain PD

Fountain PD is scrapping its body cameras, not because they don’t value the video, but because the current system takes too much time to archive and is not very user-friendly.

Over the past year, footage from a body camera has proven to be invaluable in several area shootings, including fatal shootings by police in Trinidad and Pueblo.

However, the lack of body camera footage recorded when a 17 year old was shot in Fountain by an officer back in September has contributed to the department facing a lawsuit from the victim’s family.

Fountain police don’t question the value of first-hand video.

They say the problem is their cameras are attached to a recording device that connects directly to a server, and doesn’t allow any tampering by an officer to catalogue the footage or attach it to a particular call.

Lt. Tommy Coates admitted Wednesday that some clips that could have helped in a criminal case were deleted because they were more than 6 months old and eligible for deletion per department policy.

“There’s a multitude of videos that were over that 180 day period that were deleted from the system and are no longer available,” he said.

Fountain PD is now the process of reviewing 1200-1400 videos never catalogued at all to look for any type of criminal activity or officer misconduct.

The department is also moving to a new camera system used by several surrounding agencies that automatically attaches data to the video to connect it to a particular call.

“We think we have a really good product, and I think it’s going to streamline everything, make it much easier for the officers in terms of time, in terms of time management, in terms of case management,” Coates said.

The department has also amended its 180 day deletion policy, due to criminal cases often taking longer than 6 months to develop.Fountain PD is scrapping its body cameras, not because they don’t value the video, but because the current system takes too much time to archive and is not very user-friendly.

Over the past year, footage from a body camera has proven to be invaluable in several area shootings, including fatal shootings by police in Trinidad and Pueblo.

However, the lack of body camera footage recorded when a 17 year old was shot in Fountain by an officer back in September has contributed to the department facing a lawsuit from the victim’s family.

Fountain police don’t question the value of first-hand video.

They say the problem is their cameras are attached to a recording device that connects directly to a server, and doesn’t allow any tampering by an officer to catalogue the footage or attach it to a particular call.

Lt. Tommy Coates admitted Wednesday that some clips that could have helped in a criminal case were deleted because they were more than 6 months old and eligible for deletion per department policy.

“There’s a multitude of videos that were over that 180 day period that were deleted from the system and are no longer available,” he said.

Fountain PD is now the process of reviewing 1200-1400 videos never catalogued at all to look for any type of criminal activity or officer misconduct.

The department is also moving to a new camera system used by several surrounding agencies that automatically attaches data to the video to connect it to a particular call.

“We think we have a really good product, and I think it’s going to streamline everything, make it much easier for the officers in terms of time, in terms of time management, in terms of case management,” Coates said.

The department has also amended its 180 day deletion policy, due to criminal cases often taking longer than 6 months to develop.