FROM THE RIVERSIDE PRESS-ENTERPRISE: Sheriff’s body camera rollout left union sitting in the dark

Deputies union is suing because it wasn’t consulted. Riverside County says it didn’t have to.

Result: Standoff.

Riverside County should never have gotten into a standoff with its sheriff’s deputies union over body cameras.

Both the county and the deputies stand to benefit from camera use. Agencies that have deployed them find they dramatically reduce citizen complaints and use of force.
Taxpayers save gobs of money spent on excessive-force lawsuits, legal settlements and time wasted investigating unfounded complaints.

So why aren’t Riverside County and the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association on the same side in this fight?

The union has taken the county to court for failing to consult it and the county counters that it didn’t have to consult the union. How sad. And it could so easily have been avoided.
I talked to police commanders in a city that pioneered the use of body-worn cameras, interviewed the head of a law-enforcement think tank and reviewed a U.S. Department of Justice study that created guidelines for body-camera programs.

My conclusion: The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department bungled its experiment at the start, needlessly alienated its union and provoked the standoff by failing to engage not just the deputies but the community as well. READ MORE…