How body camera violations became a top Cleveland police discipline charge 

Cleveland was among the first major cities in the country to deploy body cameras, beginning in 2015. Since then, police interactions have been captured on video in ways they weren’t before. 

Footage often shapes disciplinary outcomes by confirming – or disproving – allegations of misconduct. Officers can also be charged with misconduct for misusing their body cameras. 

Body camera violations are some of the most common charges recorded in police disciplinary hearings – appearing in over one in five disciplinary hearings since 2017. These violations peaked in 2021 and have tapered off since. 

Body cameras are digital recording devices with internal memory to store recorded video and audio. Cleveland Police use Taser Axon wearable cameras. The division refers to them as “wearable camera systems” or WCS, and that is what appears in discipline records. 

All officers must complete training on how to operate the devices and make sure they record and store data properly. Cleveland Division of Police policies on body cameras, last updated in January 2020, can be found here. 

Why were body camera violations so common?

Calvin Williams, who served as chief from 2014 to 2022, initiated a zero tolerance policy for body camera violations. One body camera violation would automatically result in a one-day suspension. “The previous practice was I don’t care if you made a mistake, I don’t care if it was on purpose or not, you’re gonna get a day suspension,” said Cleveland Police spokesperson Sgt. Freddy Diaz. 

Current Chief Dorothy Todd has a different approach. Unless there is a “blatant” or purposeful violation, the first offense almost always results in a verbal warning. (The verbal warnings don’t appear in discipline records.)

If another violation occurs again within 12 months, the discipline escalates to a more serious consequence, such as reinstruction or suspension, he said.  

Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Andrew J. Gasiewski said officers – particularly new recruits – appreciated the leniency because it takes time to build the muscle memory to activate the camera, especially when officers “in real time are handling critical situations and then, bam, after everything settled down they realize the camera is not on.”

Failure to activate

In more than 60% of body camera violation cases, officers were charged with failing to activate recording during interactions that required it. In these instances, there’s often no footage of what happened and no way to confirm or disprove what an officer or resident says took place.

The most consequential cases involve situations where the absence of footage directly benefits the officer. In 2020, a patrol officer was charged with chasing a vehicle at unsafe speeds, failing to de-escalate, shoving a handcuffed suspect, and failing to notify a supervisor of the use of force. He didn’t have his body camera activated during any of it. At the hearing, every charge except the body camera violation was dismissed. The officer walked away with a written reprimand and retraining for the body camera violation. 

In most cases, improper use of a body camera results in a letter instructing the officer on the rules. If the officer had previous discipline, is a supervisor or was part of a serious incident, the discipline could result in a suspension.

In 2021, a lieutenant was charged with failing to start a recording twice and failing to wear his body camera 15 times. The hearing report noted that an investigation found he also failed to report an allegation of excessive force and was deceptive and uncooperative.  He received a 25-day suspension. 

Ending recordings prematurely

Thirty-nine officers were charged with ending a recording early.

Officers may stop recording only with supervisor approval in specific situations, including while talking to uncooperative or vulnerable witnesses who ask the officer to stop recording, in medical situations or to protect informants and undercover officers. 

In 2023, a sergeant deactivated his body camera and then had an eight-minute unrecorded conversation with a person reporting a crime and his girlfriend. An investigation found the conversation should have been recorded. The sergeant received a nondisciplinary letter of reinstruction. 

The same year, another sergeant turned off his body camera at a crime scene, where he was also charged with failing to enforce domestic violence statutes. An investigation determined the officer lacked enough evidence to make an arrest, so that charge was dismissed. The sergeant received reinstruction on body camera use because it was his first violation.

Failing to secure the technology and upload footage 

Twenty-one officers lost or damaged their body cameras. Twenty-three failed to upload or tag footage with information from the interaction. 

In 2023, a detective was charged with failing for months to upload 92 body camera recordings. For the upload failure, he received non-disciplinary reinstruction. He was also charged with failing to activate his camera during a foot pursuit. For this, he received a three-day suspension. 

In many of the nearly 400 body camera violations, it’s not clear what the officer was accused of because the records only show a generic “WCS violation.”

Cid Standifer contributed data editing to this story.