Lack of uniforms keeping some CSPD officers from wearing body cameras

While hundreds of Colorado Springs Police Department officers wear body cameras, according to a local attorney, other officers do not, because there are not enough shirts specially made to hold the cameras.

Attorney Jeremy Loew says he has been part of cases where body cameras should have been used, but were not.

The most recent example came when he was defending a client in a DUI case.

Loew says when he asked why the officer could not provide body camera video, that officer admitted that while he was assigned a camera, he could not use it because he did not have the proper shirt to wear the camera.

Colorado Springs police say they do have a handful of officers who cannot wear cameras because of the lack of shirts, but it is not a widespread issue.

Police say only 17 officers out of more than 500 are affected by the uniform issue.

But Loew says this should not be an issue at all. He believes body camera video is important in any case, but especially the cases that are subjective to the officer, such as DUI cases.

“[Officers] are making determinations that really factor into someone’s guilt or innocence based on what they observed with their eyes and what a body cameras would also observe. Without this evidence we have to rely only on the word of the police officer,” said Loew.

Colorado Springs police say they hope the remaining officers will get the uniform shirts by Christmas.