The Baltimore City Council?s Public Safety Subcommittee is scheduled to meet today with Baltimore police about conducting video recordings of all police interrogation rooms.
City Council President Sheila Dixon?s aide Ruffin Brown said Dixon introduced a resolution about the issue because she says she feels camera surveillance could be a benefit to both officers and suspects.
“It?s a safety issue for both the law enforcement officers and the suspects themselves,” Brown said. “Having cameras would put everyone at ease.”
The issue came to attention in July when about 25 people rallied outside Baltimore Police Department headquarters, calling for policy changes after an officer was accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old suspect during an interview.
The officer, William Darrell Welch, 40, was indicted on a second-degree rape charge and pleaded not guilty in September.
The group of youth activists, led by Hassan Allen-Giordano, is demanding changes to police operations, including a written policy to ensure that male officers are accompanied by female officers when interviewing female suspects and witnesses and that video cameras are used in all interrogation rooms at all times.
In Dixon?s resolution about the issue, council members asked for the police to share with them their policies on using recording equipment in interrogations, an analysis of using recording devices in preventing wrongful convictions and protecting police officers from false accusations of abuse.
Police spokesman Matt Jablow said the department has historically been against the use of cameras in interrogation rooms, but would review its position.
“In the past, we haven?t thought it was the right thing to do, but if the City Council members want it, we?ll take a look at it again,” Jablow said.
Allen-Giordano said that he met with Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm about the issue and was told that the police department needed more resources to install the cameras.
“We?re telling the council, ?If you really want this, then you all need to back it financially,? ” Allen-Giordano said.
“We?re the main ones backing this resolution to get this passed. If it doesn?t, then we?ll try to get state legislation put in.”
