Chief Beck blames budget for broken surveillance cameras at LAPD stations

Responding to a watchdog's audit that found the LAPD's camera systems inside its 21 local stations "inadequate," Chief Charlie Beck Tuesday said he needs more money.

"The city's budget crisis has precluded us from being able to fix it to the extent that we would like," Beck told reporters. "We have asked for budgetary assessments for the last couple of years to improve our cameras in the stations."
 
Some stations had no cameras at all, while others only had cameras that didn't function, according to the LAPD's Inspector General. Those stations that did have functioning cameras typically kept footage for only 30 days.
 
"There are also quite a few things here which are not budgetary issues," said Commissioner Robert Saltzman." Its important we all agree the department can move forward expeditiously on those issues."
 
The OIG found various problems — including missing footage, poor coverage areas, broken cameras, and inadequate policies on archiving and accessing footage. In one reviewed case, there was no footage of a man in an LAPD holding cell who suffered a medical emergency and later died in police custody.
 
"Not only do the cameras help us figure out potential misconduct, they also quite often help us see there is not misconduct," Saltzman said.
 
Beck said a department working group is looking at how to address the problems; but he also sought to spread the blame for non-working station cameras.
 
"There are a lot of people that take care of police stations," he said. "It isn't the police officers that do the maintenance. It's other city departments."
 
The chief shouldn't expect more money, said Commission President Steve Soboroff.
 
"Welcome to the real world. Welcome to big city economics," Soboroff said. "There is not enough money to pay for everything. And there won't be."
 
In addition to the cameras, LAPD inspectors are looking at a range of other security issues at local stations, said Assistant Chief Sandy Jo MacArthur.
 
"They're starting to do spot inspections on things that we think we already corrected, like propping open doors" at stations, she said.​