Urbana Police to Discontinue Taser Camera Use, Despite Law Mandating Taser Video Review

On July 24, 2019 Urbana Police Lieutenant Richard H Surles surprised the members of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) by announcing that the Department will no longer use Taser-mounted cameras during use of force incidents. The decision would seem to violate the CPRB Ordinance which makes it mandatory that every use of a Taser, defined as “unholstering and/or discharge of a TASER device”, be followed by a review of the video taken by the Taser’s attached camera (which activates automatically). According to CPRB members, when Taser usage was first implemented, it was agreed that all Tasers would be fitted with cameras, so the every single Taser incident could be reviewed.

According to Surles, the decision to cease use of Taser cameras was purely a fiscal decision, since the battery for the Taser with a built-in camera costs $650, whereas a simple replacement battery can be much cheaper. Surles avoided answering questions about how often batteries actually require replacement, and argued that the new body worn cameras issued at the beginning of 2019 would give a better view than Taser-mounted cameras anyways. This claim that was mostly debunked during the very same meeting, when body camera footage during Taser displays was often blocked by the officer’s own arms/hands and the Taser gun itself.

CPRB member Scott Dossett was upset about the decision, saying that the Urbana Police Department should have discussed this decision with the CPRB first. He argued that the Taser policy manual was crafted assuming that Taser usage would always have accompanying Taser-mounted camera video. Some remarks from Dossett:

“I don’t like the idea to drop that data, at the moment of discharge, all of a sudden your body cam is not going to give me what I want to see. I no longer have those two beeping red lights that really tell me a whole lot about intent in terms of the officer’s actions…I hope to god we never have a discharge that results in a fatality…I see this group responsible for following those darts into a target and trying to decide whether or not an officer acted appropriately or not, and I don’t like the idea that we lost that.”

A complete article on the July 24^th, 2019 CPRB meeting can be found here: Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) Meets to Review Police Department Taser Usage