Body cams should be on all officers, says head of Wisconsin police union

La Crosse has a few cams on neighborhood resource officers

The head of Wisconsin’s police union has called for universal use of body cams for officers on the street. 

The union head also said it would help in avoiding uncertainty in police interaction with the public, and that’s one of the reasons La Crosse police have begun using cameras on a trial basis.  

“It seems to be going good,” La Crosse police capt. Jason Melby said of the few cameras the department has.

They’ve been on the city’s neighborhood resource officers for a few weeks.

The city originally sought to outfit police with cameras more than a year ago but were delayed by software and compatibility issues.

And, the idea is to have the body cams operational all the time Melby said.

“We’re following our existing policy on squad cameras,” he explained, “where they should be capturing official police contacts and when to turn it on and what should be stored.”

What the cams are, however, is just an extension of squad cams that have been in use for years Melby pointed out.

“Our squads have got four or five different angles of view,” Melby said. “We pull up and deal with victims on a regular basis and the (audio) mic is on the officer’s body.

“So, even if we aren’t getting actual video, we’re recording almost everything that’s out there in official police contact.