Salinas police chief reveals guidelines for body cameras

Salinas police are one big step closer to receiving and using their body cameras.

One of the last steps is finalizing the policy for when officers are required to turn the cameras on, versus when they can have them off.

It’s been two months since Salinas police received more than $140,000 in grant money to buy the body cams. During that span, Chief Kelly McMillin has been hammering out the details of the policy to make sure the privacy of the officers, as well as the citizens, is protected.

The plan is to purchase 70 body cameras and any officer planning to go out on the streets to do some type of enforcement has to wear one, according to McMillin. He said said officers don’t have to turn the cameras on in the police station.

However, once they hit the streets, it depends.

McMillin said for victims of a burglary or sexual assault an officer is allowed to respect the privacy of the victims if the video isn’t going to be useful for evidence.

News Channel 5 sat down with the chief as he told us when officers are required to turn the camera on.

“If an officer is out there in a scenario or circumstance that might lead them to make an arrest or make some sort of enforcement action, particularly those that would include the use of force,” McMillin explained, “so if they are dealing with somebody who is drunk or on drugs or somebody that could become violent, our expectation is that camera is going to be on.”

McMillin added he hopes money from Measure G, which is that special 1-cent sales tax measure, will help fund the operating costs of the cameras.

The Chief estimates it will cost his department $100,000 a year for these body cams, which includes the storage of the data.

“Through the course of 24 hours, we’re going to put something on the order of 40 police officers on the street all recording people every day. We’re going to be generating a lot of video,” he said.

Because of the dollar amount, McMillin said he still needs approval from the city council to buy the cameras, which he expects an answer for in March.