HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 12-09 Request to suspend body cams denied PIONEER PRESS
MAPLEWOOD
Request to suspend body cams denied
A judge has denied a police union’s request to temporarily suspend Maplewood’s
police body camera ordinance while a suit against it plays out.
In her decision Thursday, Ramsey County District Judge Jennifer Frisch noted that in
order to be granted, applications for temporary injunctions — which the union called
for — must show proof that they would prevent harm that is “real or substantial, not
hypothetical or imagined.”
The union didn’t do that, Frisch said.
The union, Law Enforcement Labor Services, is in part arguing against a provision of
the body camera law that prevents police officers from reviewing footage of “critical
incidents” — where police greatly harm or kill someone — before giving a statement
to whoever is investigating it. The union has argued that harm could befall an officer
who makes an incorrect statement in such cases — and the policy, which has been in
effect for nearly a month, should have been part of a collective bargaining process
between Maplewood and the union.
“Such potential for harm exists independent of the camera review provisions,” the
judge noted, adding that officers aren’t required to give statements regardless.
The union also argued that wearing body cameras creates a change in work
conditions for officers, placing them under unprecedented “surveillance” by
supervisors.
“Body-worn camera technology is simply another mechanism to accomplish the same
supervisory function already available to the city,” and there was no presented
evidence that it was more intrusive, the judge wrote.
— David Knutson