海角大神

A Chicago Police Department (CPD) audit reveals that officers have deliberately damaged many of the patrol cars鈥� dashboard cameras.聽

After 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke in Oct. 2014, the dashcam video of the shooting went viral. Racial tensions between white officers and black communities rose throughout the country, and internally, the CPD began an intensive investigation of dashcam integrity.聽

Because of the five vehicles with dashcam systems present at Laquan鈥檚 shooting that October night, none of them recorded audio and only two actually recorded the video.聽

But the five dashcams in Laquan鈥檚 case that did not operate or only operated in part are not a statistical coincidence. Last month, CPD officials found that do not record audio and another 12 percent don鈥檛 record video either. The CPD says 鈥渙perator error or in some cases intentional destruction鈥� are to blame for the dysfunction but a DNAinfo Chicago review of the data says the latter excuse is entirely responsible.聽

鈥淐hicago Police Department officials stashed microphones in their squad car glove boxes. They pulled out batteries. Microphone antennas got busted or went missing. And sometimes, dashcam systems ,鈥� DNAinfo Chicago reports from their analysis.聽

Police Supt. John Escalante warned of tampering repercussions in December, and has since issued several 鈥渇ormal reprimands and up-to-three-day suspensions鈥� to hold officers accountable.

The Chicago Police Department did not return calls and emails for comment.聽

Fraternal Order of Police Chicago President Dean Angelo tells 海角大神 in a phone interview Thursday that the department is punishing officers to deflect away from its own inefficiencies.聽

鈥淚 don鈥檛 agree it鈥檚 human tampering,鈥� said Mr. Angelo. 鈥淭hese cameras are in disrepair for long periods of time. The department doesn鈥檛 want to claim responsibility so for them so it's human error 鈥� they are reflecting their inability to repair these cameras in a timely way.鈥澛�

Police technicians repaired Van Dyke鈥檚 dash camera on June 17, three months after the officer reported it broken. Van Dyke again reported the camera damaged on June 18, and it was not fixed again until Oct. 8. Technicians deemed it 鈥渋ntentional damage,鈥� records show.聽

And when Laquan聽was shot and killed 12 days later, the camera did not record audio. Technicians again looked at the equipment on Oct. 31 but found 鈥�,鈥� attesting the lack of audio to personnel failure to sync up the microphones.聽

鈥淲hy does it automatically turn into a police officer being responsible?鈥� asks Angelo. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easier to blame a police officer than blame the repair process.鈥澛�

And not only are the officers not responsible, says Angelo, but the department is blindly accusing the wrong officers. If something in an officer鈥檚 car is damaged, such as the dash cam鈥檚 video or audio capabilities, the previous car鈥檚 owner is written up.聽

鈥淚鈥檓 not going to say there is no time when someone puts the microphone in the glove compartment, I鈥檓 sure that鈥檚 happened. But to the extent that these calls are coming in? Officers are saying [their cameras] have been broken for months, but now I鈥檓 getting written up,鈥� Angelo tells the Monitor. 鈥淭o say these officers are unilaterally damaging, I don鈥檛 believe it.鈥澛�

Of the 22 Chicago Police-involved shooting investigations examined by the Independent Police Review Authority, only . And none of these three recordings included audio.聽

But Angelo says police officers have no reason to intentionally damage their dashcams.聽

鈥淭hese are advantageous pieces of equipment,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese are advances in technology and policing that can benefit the officers.鈥�

The public also sees dash cams as tools for exposing the truth. As the public鈥檚 demand for more transparency has grown, Chicago prosecutors have released dashcam footage before police trials even begin.