ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Across the country, most police officers now wear body cameras. That is not the case in Madison, Wisconsin, the state's progressive capital with nearly 300,000 residents. But as Sarah Lear of Wisconsin Public Radio reports, a fatal police shooting in Madison last month has pressured police there to equip themselves with body cameras.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (CHANTING) Corey.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Say his name.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (CHANTING) Corey.
SARAH LEAR, BYLINE: There have been days of protests in Madison since a police officer shot Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man, on July 22.
(SOUNDBITE OF SIRENS BLARING)
LEAR: Bystander video shows four police officers struggling to restrain him, and then one officer shoots Ruiz three times. Police say Ruiz pulled out a knife, which led to an officer being injured. Wisconsin's Department of Justice is expected to review video evidence as part of an ongoing investigation into the shooting. But those investigators will not be looking at body cam footage. That's a problem, lawyers for the Ruiz family say. Here's B'Ivory LaMarr, one of those attorneys, at a recent press conference.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
B'IVORY LAMARR: We are in a major metropolitan city in the state of Wisconsin, and Madison is one of the few cities that still does not have police body cams.
LEAR: Research shows that the vast majority of police departments in large cities use body cameras, but in Madison, only officers on the SWAT team and motorcycle units have them. For more than a decade, Madison's elected leaders have debated whether to expand body cameras department-wide. But efforts have been stymied in Wisconsin's most liberal city. Some groups have raised privacy concerns. Mahnker Dahnweih, a leader with the local activist group Freedom, Inc., spoke against body cameras at a committee meeting back in 2020.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MAHNKER DAHNWEIH: It's just giving them another tool to surveil our communities, which they don't need.
LEAR: Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway supported a pilot program which allowed some officers to test the cameras in 2024. But in the past, she stopped short of backing the cameras on a citywide basis. That's changed. The day after the police shooting, Rhodes-Conway announced she's asking the city council for at least $400,000 to phase in body cameras over a three-year period starting in 2027.
SATYA RHODES-CONWAY: My main concern has been the cost. When we initially got the estimates from the pilot, there was a very large price tag, and the chief has worked to bring that price tag down in various ways.
LEAR: Police and prosecutors use body cam footage as evidence to convict criminals. It's also used to investigate police misconduct. Madison's police chief wants body cameras. So does the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a union representing law enforcement officers. Jim Palmer is the executive director.
JIM PALMER: Body camera footage can, you know, support an officer's actions, and sometimes it raises difficult questions. But either way, you know, body-worn cameras provide investigators and the public with a more complete picture.
LEAR: City Council President Sabrina Madison says she believes body cameras will have the votes to clear the council later this year.
SABRINA MADISON: The community, for a while, was not wanting to implement body-worn cameras yet, and that has changed.
LEAR: Research is mixed on whether body cameras produce how often officers use force. And Council President Madison says it's impossible to know whether body cameras would have prevented Ruiz's death. After police shootings, people want answers about what happened. And she says body cameras are one tool for transparency. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Lear in Madison.
(SOUNDBITE OF LITTLE BROTHER SONG, "THE WAY YOU DO IT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.