ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—When police officers fatally shot Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, a powerful tool conveyed the brutal reality of their deaths to millions of people and helped fuel public outrage: cellphone video captured at the scene.
As the nation debates law enforcement’s actions in these two high-profile shootings of black men, a growing number of groups are training citizens to record and monitor police encounters for potential excessive force. They offer classes on rights, tips on recording better footage and ideas on where to share on social media for maximum exposure
Fatal police interactions caught on video in St. Louis, Missouri; North Charleston, South Carolina; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Staten Island, New York, sparked similar angry reactions. In each case, a bystander or community advocate caught the encounter on video and posted it online before authorities had a chance to confiscate it.
“We have to depend on our cameras to keep us safe. We have to depend on our cameras to keep us out of jail,” said Dennis Flores, co-founder of El Grito de Sunset Park, an organization that keeps an eye on police in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park.
Some groups, like El Grito, go out least once a week on an organized patrol. Others like the Louisiana-based Stop the Killing Inc., monitor police scanners for possible deadly police encounters. That’s how an activist recorded the Sterling shooting.
In addition, some American Civil Liberties Union state affiliates, like in New Mexico and California, even allow residents to download an app so users can easily record and upload footage before police can confiscate smartphones. ACLU officials can then examine the footage and details around the alleged abuse to determine if legal action is needed.
A police advocate questioned the assumptions underlying the video monitoring.
“This is a fad based on the premise that police officers are doing something wrong,” Fraternal Order of Police executive director James Pasco said.
