MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department in conjunction with Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges’ office has revised the body camera policies for officers.
In a press conference Wednesday morning, Hodges, along with acting Chief Medaria Arradondo announced that body cameras must be turned on when dispatched, called upon, or when an officer engages in self-initiated activity.
The changes come 10-days after Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed 40-year-old Justine Damond, an Australian national.
“One of the toughest things that all of us in Minneapolis have had to face, is that after all the time and the money and the energy that we put into making sure body cameras were in place, we did not have body camera footage in an incident where it mattered a great deal,” Hodges said as she opened the press conference.
Officer Noor and his partner Officer Matthew Harrity did not have their body cameras or the dash camera in their squad car turned on.
Arradondo notes that while “many officers are using their cameras a lot,” other officers are “not using them enough.”
Hodges states that changes in the body camera policies and clarification of those policies have been “in the works” for a while.
The statement comes after the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was granted permission by the courts to search the property of Justine Damond.
According to KSTP, court documents suggest the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was looking for evidence that could link Damond to a crime.
KSTP spoke with Joseph Daly from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, who told them the move could cause an international incident, if Damond was deemed a suspect at any point during the BCA’s investigation.
According to SkyNews, Noor’s attorney, Tom Plunkett has called for an independent toxicology report to determine whether or not Damond had taken the popular sleeping pill Ambien.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
