Chapel Hill’s recent addition of dashboard cameras in the town’s police cars is a welcome and needed improvement — especially in light of past confusion that such cameras would have helped prevent.
The town now has 30 of its 45 frontline cars outfitted with digital dashboard cameras. Eventually, all 45 patrol cars will be outfitted. Funding for these cameras came from federal grants totaling $88,000.
These cameras are far from gratuitous. If anything, they were too long in coming.
Two summers ago, local business owner Charles Brown was detained when officers mistook him for another man wanted by the police. After discovering their mistake, the officers released him.
Brown, backed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that he was a victim of racial profiling. The NAACP pushed Brown’s case, and the town of Chapel Hill chose to review the details surrounding the incident.
Besides an audio recording of the incident, there was only Brown and the officers’ testimony.
At the time, we defended the Chapel Hill Police Department’s handling of the situation. But we recognized that a lack of clarity surrounding the event in question served to obscure the truth.
We thus endorsed recommendations issued by Police Chief Brian Curran that included installing dashboard cameras, which would have provided valuable visual evidence.
Dashboard cameras provide a more complete truth than witness testimonies alone. They provide video of police stops that protect both police officers and citizens from false accusations. Finally, they provide an additional layer of transparency — something that is always welcome in government.
