Concerned after a 73-year-old community activist's arm was broken during an arrest, a Baltimore councilwoman is urging greater transparency and is renewing a push for dashboard video cameras in city police cruisers.
Belinda K. Conaway, whose district includes neighborhoods near Druid Hill Park, introduced the bills last week. She also introduced a resolution that would summon Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to a public hearing to discuss documenting incidents in which officers have contact with citizens but do not make an arrest.
"I think it would be best for both parties - for residents and officers - to have the cameras for everyone's protection," said Conaway. "It's something that can be referred to in cases where problems arise."
Invoking a policy change in which the Police Department stopped identifying officers involved in shootings, her bill calls for a "uniform, consistent, fair and transparent policy in dissemination of information surrounding police/civilian encounters that result in injury to either party."
Conaway said she was struck by the story of James E. "Lenny" Clay, 73, a barber and community activist who was arrested Dec. 23 on charges of leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.
Police say he struck a parked car and was suspected of driving drunk, and his arm was broken as he was taken into custody after refusing to comply with officers' orders. A spokesman said it appeared all protocols were followed, but an internal inquiry was launched amid a public outcry. Police released an incident report of the arrest.
Clay disputes the entire police account of the incident, saying he was stopped for no reason and was thrown to the ground by an officer who put his foot on the back of his neck. His arm was broken in two places.
"When things like this happen, it makes people leery; it makes people fearful," Conaway said. "And those actions don't represent the majority of the Police Department."
The councilwoman pushed for cameras previously, but the measure was defeated after opposition from the city's law and finance departments and the police, she said.
Cameras can protect officers from unfounded complaints of abuse, said Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police. Cameras can serve as a "silent witness" and have helped vindicate troopers accused of wrongdoing, he said.
"So often you have two different accounts of what's going on, and that video has been played repeatedly for concerned citizens, community organization, attorneys, and they have been shown the true facts about what has occurred out there," Shipley said. "It's cleared up a lot of misperceptions."
State police began installing the cameras in 1998 as part of a settlement in a race-discrimination lawsuit. Shipley said the agency has more than 400 cameras, which are being upgraded to digital quality.
The city Police Department has cameras in some vehicles, mostly those assigned to the traffic division. But Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said additional devices might not be the best investment as Bealefeld encourages officers to get out of their patrol cars and walk the beat.
"We'd much rather invest in technology that enhances that end," Guglielmi said.
David Rocah, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said cameras are "a good tool both to protect officers from unfounded accusations and to document when police do things they shouldn't be doing."
Robert F. Cherry, president of the city police union, said the union is not taking an official position on the cameras but says they should be debated in terms of whether they enhance the fight against crime.
"If we're going to move forward with technology that benefits the Police Department and by extension the citizens, let's do that," Cherry said. "But let's not … submit bills just because of an incident that the department says is under investigation."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, dashboard cameras were used by 55 percent of local police departments and 58 percent of sheriff's offices as of 2003.
The proposal could protect officers from bogus lawsuits and create greater transparency in the department, Conaway said.
"This incident came to light because Mr. Clay is prominent in the community," she said. "But what happens when this happens to a regular person and it doesn't capture the media's attention?"