GRETNA, La. — Another New Orleans area police department will soon require its officers to wear body cameras.
Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson says he will be deploying the technology within two to three weeks.
Gretna, on the west bank of Jefferson Parish was once portrayed as the arrest capital of the country.
Chief Lawson maintains that was an unfair and untrue characterization, but he said body cameras are a way for his department to shore up relationships in the community.
“It gives us a tool to monitor our officers and certainly gives us that ability to look at those on cam videos, make corrections if an officer makes a mistake as well as it gives the officers some protection for citizens’ complaints," Lawson said.
Actor and activist Ameer Baraka has worked with Gretna PD on racial bias training. He says having a video record of interactions with police is not only best practices, but it’s the right thing to do.
“It’s a new day,” Baraka said. “We need video cameras for the officers to protect the officers, for the citizens to be protected from officers.”
Gretna will soon become the largest law enforcement agency in Jefferson Parish to have body worn cameras.
Officials with both the JPSO and police in Kenner, the largest city in JP have said they don’t plan to get cameras, at least for now because of the expense of operation and video storage.
“There’s no such thing that you can’t afford it,” Baraka said. “You can afford it. You just have to cut cost because it’s imperative. You don’t want another George Floyd. You don’t want that.”
Gretna PD just got $125,000 from Jefferson Parish to go toward the body camera program. That will cover about half of the cost, and the rest of the money will come from the city.
In addition to about 100 body cams, Chief Lawson plans to put dashboard cameras in about 40 of his traffic and patrol vehicles.
“Which will serve as a backup for the officer’s body cam,” Lawson said. “It just gives us more coverage, more versatility. I think it boosts public confidence and it shows transparency.”
The price of this technology is now more affordable given a 5-year lease program and cloud storage Lawson added.
“It’s something that we have wanted to do for a long time. We started over a year ago and formulated some policies. We tested several different companies on officers in the field and went through that entire process a year ago.”
Gretna is close to inking a deal with Axon, the same body cameras the NOPD and Louisiana State Police use.