ATLANTA — The Atlanta Auditor’s Office first reviewed the Atlanta Police Department’s use of body-worn cameras in 2018. A recently published follow-up audit showed improvement, but that there were still some risks.
The audit, at the time, found that officers were not consistently turning their cameras on, there were delays in activation and premature deactivations.
Additionally, the 2018 audit found cameras were only used on a third of dispatch calls and videos were being deleted before the 180-day minimum storage period had ended.
In the years since the last audit, APD has changed its retention policy to hold onto camera footage for five years.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Additionally, all units now have cameras and the audit found officers record and upload video for roughly 88% of dispatched calls.
New technology in the cameras used by APD officers also aided in improving video capture.
TRENDING STORIES:
- DeKalb firefighter was trying to rescue firefighter when he died in the line of duty
- Former Lithia Springs HS teacher pleads guilty to sexual relationship with student for 10 years
- Sandy Springs UMC to demolish main campus for redevelopment
The upgrades “automatically activate cameras when officers unholster firearms or turn on the squad car’s emergency lights and sirens.”
For officers within 30-feet of lights and sirens being used, cameras are automatically activated, the audit said.
From Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2024, APD officers recorded and uploaded more than 750,000 videos, with between 70,000 and 80,000 per month created, according to the auditors.
The audit showed the increase of video recordings, which were up more than 200,000 over an eight-month shorter period. In 2018, less than 500,000 videos were recorded over 18 months.
The majority of videos were investigations, followed by traffic enforcement, incident reports, general citizen contacts and accidental or training activations.
APD policy also requires sworn employees to have their cameras on at start of shift and that they remain on until the end of a shift.
However, the audit found that there were “still identified instances where officers turned on cameras late and turned them off too soon, which could either be a mistake or an intentional effort to hide wrongdoing.”
Auditors found that procedures now require supervisors to review who accessed footage from use of force videos so that “the involved officer didn’t view footage before writing an incident report,” but said that “overall access to videos needs to be more limited. Supervisory review of footage to ensure compliance can also be improved.”
In terms of overall recommendations, the auditors suggested that the Chief of Police should:
- Clarify activation and deactivation for supervisor compliance and enforce consistently
- Create new guidance for camera activation and deactivation for non-dispatched calls and non-sworn employees, as well as when non-field staff must turn on their cameras
- Provide guidance on when to use categories that have longer retention periods
- If possible, acquire the capability to track supervisory review forms and dispatch metrics in the online monitoring system for compliance and department-wide metrics
- If possible, acquire the ability to integrate identifying information for randomized videos audited by supervisors and compliance unit
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
