Phoenix Police Department is partnering with Arizona State University to research the effects of body-worn cameras on police, following a recent citizen petition.
City Council was given an update on the petition on Wednesday. The petition, submitted by Joanne Scott Woods, called for City Council to allow the Phoenix Police Department to partner with ASU’s Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety to study what the expansion of body-worn cameras has done so far. It also calls for the creation of an early intervention system to prevent officer-involved shootings.
So far, studies on the usefulness of body cameras in police work have been limited. This study would allow for “regional and national comparisons between officer-involved shootings in Phoenix to those in other agencies,” according to the petition. It said the study would compare Phoenix with 50 of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada.
District 5 interim councilwoman Vania Guevara said Phoenix Police have been involved in 37 shootings in 2018 alone. The petition said Phoenix has one of the highest rates of officer involved shootings in the nation.
“I just want to note that it is very clear today that there is a major problem with officer-involved shootings,” Guevara said. “I would just ask what steps can we take to make sure that this happens less often, and eventually make it so that it doesn’t happen at all.”
Phoenix Police Executive Assistant Chief Michael Kurtenbach was at the meeting and spoke about the collaboration, which is already in its beginning stages.
“This is a multi-layered approach to try to identify the causes for the violence that we’re seeing in our city,” Kurtenbach said.
Kurtenbach said the Phoenix Police Department has already partnered with the university to hire a clinical professor who would begin working with the department full-time in January 2019. While not specifically mentioning a name, Kurtenbach said the professor was previously a police officer in the Midwest, and will be focused on community policing.
While Woods’ request has already been reviewed and acted upon by the Phoenix Police Department, no council action was required at the meeting.
“I find it reassuring that the police department is moving on an agreement to have a professor from ASU to be assigned to the police department staff to perform research on the effect of important policing issues such as these,” Woods said at the meeting.
Contact the reporter at nludden@asu.edu
