VIDEO: Oklahoma City Removes Body Cameras from Officers After Policy Dispute with Union
The Oklahoma City Police Department has been forced to temporarily end its body-worn camera program because of a dispute between the local Fraternal Order of Police and the chief over policy.
An arbitrator sided with the union that a portion of the department's body camera policy violated the contract between the city and the union.
"The heart of the issue is they didn’t negotiate the policy to start with. It’s not that we are against cameras, but we have a policy in our contract, and they did not follow that," said John George, union president. "I'm really frustrated that we had to do this over something everyone knew they should have negotiated in the first place."
The next step is for the union and the police department to continue negotiations. If they can't reach an agreement, the issue goes back to an arbitrator. The arbitrator would chose between the two sides.
Once a ruling is reached on policy, the cameras can be used again, KFOR TV reports.