Council calls for increased police surveillance after Michael Brown shooting

Resolution follows the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson

In response to the outcry over the police shooting of an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Mo., the Atlanta City Council has urged U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to require local police to install surveillance cameras in their vehicles.

The measure comes nine days after Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson. Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong, who authored the legislation, says that surveillance cameras in police vehicles at the crime scene could have prevented eye witness discrepancies that have plagued the ongoing investigation into Brown’s death.

“Across the country stories have been reported about alleged police misconduct,” Archibong said in a statement. “Dashboard cam videos often play an important role in documenting interactions between law enforcement and citizens.”

Archibong’s non-binding resolution unanimously passed during today’s Council meeting. It now awaits Mayor Kasim Reed’s signature. Here’s a copy of the measure:

A RESOLUTION REQUESTING U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, ERIC HOLDER, TO USE HIS CONSIDERABLE INFLUENCE TO IMPRESS UPON LOCAL POLICE AGENCIES THE NEED FOR THE INSTALLATION OF CAMERAS IN THEIR VEHICLES.

WHEREAS, U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder has assigned federal investigators to conducted interviews with eyewitnesses to the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri and has pledged assistance from the Justice Department to quell “extreme displays of force” and militarization by heavily armed local police there; and

WHEREAS, Holder has said “It is clear that the scenes playing out in the streets of Ferguson over the last several nights cannot continue,”; and

WHEREAS, the Attorney General has ordered a civil rights investigation into the death of Michael Brown, led by federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Missouri, civil rights lawyers in Washington, and the FBI ; and

WHEREAS, The Justice Department is taking two additional steps:

• The Community Relations Service, a peacemaking and reconciliation unit set up to mediate civil rights struggles in the 1960s in the American South, has dispatched officials to Missouri to meet with law enforcement, civic, and faith leaders to try to reduce tensions.

• Local authorities have accepted the offer of technical assistance from other parts of the Justice Department in order to help conduct crowd control and maintain public safety without relying on unnecessary and extreme displays of force; and

WHEREAS, the stories of the eye witnesses are vastly divergent which could have been resolved had there been cameras in the police vehicles involved in the situation which could have recorded what occurred.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA requests that the U. S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, use his considerable influence to impress upon local police agencies the need for the installation of cameras in their vehicles.

At the moment, only some Atlanta Police Department patrol vehicles have cameras mounted on their dashboards to record traffic stops. APD spokesman Carlos Campos says all new APD squad cars are being equipped with cameras. As the department phases out older patrol cars, new vehicles will have surveillance cameras installed.

“Our goal is to eventually have all patrol cars equipped with in-dash cameras,” Campos tells CL.

Councilwoman Felicia Moore has also introduced a separate proposal that would look into potentially outfitting Atlanta Police Department officers with wearable video cameras to ensure greater transparency. She wants APD to study whether her idea would be feasible in terms of financials costs and other potential issues.

“It’s protection for both sides,” Moore tells CL. “It gives an opportunity in an incident like the Michael Brown shooting to see the officer from beginning to end. It would keep people from making false allegations agains the police. And it would ultimately keep police from doing things they know are potentially filmed.”