The chief of police in a small Texas community says the decision to equip his officers with body cameras has been vindicated after one such device helped show a new side to a violent confrontation between an officer and suspect.
Celina, Texas Police Chief Mark Metdker says he thinks his force could be pointing the way to the future of police work in North America.
“I think the future of policing is transparency,” Metdker, who is also doubles Celina’s Fire Chief, told KXAS news in Dallas. “Let’s be as transparent as possible. We have nothing to hide.”
Dash cam footage shows a Celina PD officer responding to a domestic disturbance this past Friday.
We can hear the officer ask the suspect to put his hands behind his back, before he suddenly leaps into view with the suspect beneath him, bringing him to the ground with a lunging takedown seemingly out of nowhere.
The two men wrestle on the ground, with the officer telling the suspect “You don’t want to do this!”
However, what could have turned into a case of excessive force by a police officer was given a new wrinkle when the Celina Police Department released the officer’s body camera footage.
The footage shows the same confrontation with one crucial detail revealed – the suspect throwing a punch at the officer out of sight of the dash camera, before being dragged to the ground.
Police say the man was under the influence of heroin at the time of the altercation.
The idea of equipping police officers with body cameras has been gaining traction in municipalities across the United States and Canada in recent years.
In the case of the Celina Police department, the officers have been equipped with body cameras for nine months, trained to activate them before responding to any call.
The Celina PD took the imitative even further, released the body camera footage on YouTube because, Chief Metdker argues, it is already a part of the public record.
“Our officers know that when they step out of the vehicle, everything they’re doing and saying is being documented,” Metdker said.
“It shows every angle and every aspect of what the officer sees.”
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