A new article from Carolina Public Press reports on the first of several forums on law enforcement and their “use of force” in Buncombe County. It was held at Erwin High School on June 22. The Buncombe county Sheriff’s department, according to Sheriff Van Duncan, has new body cameras for personal and a solid set of regulations around them to allow for treatment of the data collected as well as avenues for complaining citizens. While the city of Asheville pumps the brakes on body cameras, Duncan’s office has forged ahead.
The next three forums will take place July 13 at T.C. Roberson High School, Aug. 6 at North Buncombe High School and Aug. 20 at Owen High School. Each of the forums will begin at 6pm.
From Carolina Public Press:
Duncan said that his department had purchased 70 body cameras to equip its patrol officers, community enforcement team and officers in the jail to cover times when existing cameras in the jail weren’t monitoring them. One man asked how much resistance he’d encountered, and Duncan replied that most staff had accepted wearing the cameras.
“It’s been a very good thing for us,” he said.
One questioner asked how long the data would be stored and if the footage would be used, for example, to monitor peaceful protests. Duncan answered that unless footage involved a conflict, a complaint or a use of force, the data was erased in 30 days to avoid Fourth Amendment issues. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.
Duncan, a firearms trainer before becoming sheriff, said that officers are supposed to use only the minimum level of force necessary, and that lethal force was only appropriate in very limited situations such as if an officer or another person was under deadly threat or someone who would pose an immediate danger to the public was trying to escape. He emphasized that the procedures he was talking about were the approach used by “reasonable officers.”
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