GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Green Bay school board met Monday to talk about body cameras on school resource officers.
Right now, those officers don’t wear body cameras.
Green Bay police started training with them in February.
“Most of the things that happen in our in our schools are being recorded anyway, so the body-worn cameras, it will provide another angle or a different perspective,” Green Bay schools legal counsel Melissa Thiel Collar said.
In 2019, the district and Green Bay police set conditions for providing law enforcement services to Green Bay schools.
At that time, the city did not have body cameras.
As of now, the proposed policy says the body camera should be inactive on school grounds, but may be activated while performing official resource officer law enforcement duties on school grounds or at a school-related activity or event.
“We don’t want the body-worn cameras activated when by-in-large our school community resource officers are performing those building relationship activities and working in our schools. For the most part of the day they are not engaged in quote unquote law enforcement activities in our schools. That’s when the policy of the city is going to govern when they need to be engaged,” Thiel Collar said.
Green Bay school board member Andrew Becker says while he supports the cameras being inactive during non-law enforcement activities, he also prefers the cameras be required to be turned on during law enforcement activities.
“If we are okay with directing them that you want it to be inactive during the non-law enforcement activities, I think we can be direct with them in saying that when you transition to law enforcement you have to record it.”
School officials say there may be instances where officers need to use their own judgement when it comes to turning on and off their camera.
School board members are expected to vote on the proposal at their next meeting in August.
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