For more than eight months, police body cams at a northwest suburban department mistakenly recorded all the time, even as officers were taking bathroom breaks and involved in other non-essential police work.
Police body cams are supposed to automatically document what frontline officers see in the line of duty – interactions with civilians and suspects. But for the past eight and a half months in suburban Round Lake Park, the cameras never blinked. They were recording all the time, even when officers didn’t know they were on.
ABC 7 reports that nobody has a good answer how it happened. But it has infuriated officers and their chief and has the manufacturer pointing a finger at them.
But what happens when police body cameras go rogue, never turning off as they should, recording all the time, even as officers walk into the bathroom on their personal breaks?
In a statement Monday, Filenko says the embarrassing videos were just discovered on Saturday, recording at all times, even when it was believed the cameras were off.