Do Fargo Police Need Body Cams?

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North Dakota lawmakers have introduced a bill that will protect your privacy during interactions with police officers wearing body cameras. Grand Forks police have started using them, but is the technology going to be attached to cops in Fargo

Police stations nationwide are debating about the use of body cameras.

Neil Palmer says, “There’s always two sides to every story and then you’re actually talking cold hard evidence right there. The audio is there, the video is there, it’s all right there in front of you.”

But would they bring more harm than good to Fargo?

“I’m not sure that people would be into that, seeing that their everyday lives are being filmed.” Palmer said.

Lieutenant Joel Vettel of the Fargo Police says, “Yes there is the potential that somebody is going to be seen and those privacy issues are going to be explored and that’s the last thing law enforcement wants to do is really be part of that.”

Lawmakers don’t want everything the cameras catch to become public record because police can sometimes catch citizens in compromising positions. The bill would keep all the images from the cameras from open records, but officials say the language may need some adjusting. Fargo Police are still keeping their options open.

“We just want to find what’s best for the city of Fargo and that’s why we often times look at and ask for the opinions of our community to try to get a sense of what they really want from their police department.” Vettel said.

And for the people of Fargo, the conversation continues.

Palmer says, “It’s probably going to happen sooner rather than later.”

Police say that while the cameras can help prevent bad police conduct, they could create an issue with hiring people to analyze the footage. There are also questions as to where to store and save the videos and for how long.