MORGANTOWN — Morgantown’s Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board has set a review of the Morgantown Police Department’s officer-worn camera policy as among its 2025 priorities.
The policy, known as General Order 311, was put in place in November 2014 and revised in June 2017.
The overall gist of the order can be summed up with a five-letter phrase: When in doubt, record it.
That phrase is set apart and highlighted in bold letters in the “Guidelines for Recording” section of the six-page policy.
It notes that absent unusual circumstances, any emergency response is to be recorded in its entirety and goes on to list specific examples of events during which recording equipment should be running
Those include: Traffic stops, pursuits, observation of DUI suspects prior to stop and during sobriety testing and transport (if arrested), Miranda warnings (when feasible), prisoner transport, contact with juveniles, vehicle searches and inventories, DUI checkpoints, acts of hostility or physical violence (when possible), any confrontational contact with a citizen and any incident which the officer feels my become an issue of some importance.
According to the policy, officers are prohibited from discontinuing recording of any incident without the prior approval of a supervisor.
Review board member and local attorney Bryan Church said he questions whether that rule is being strictly followed.
“One thing that I see, at least in my line of work, that I think is inconsistent with the policy, at least as it exists now, is that there will be officers who will regularly turn their cameras off during interactions – whether it’s suspects or witnesses or other officers in the middle of an investigation – and my reading of the policy is that it’s supposed to remain on,” he said during the board’s most recent regular meeting.
Church later added, “It’s one thing to forget, I guess. It’s another thing to deliberately turn it off when you’re having an exchange with somebody. To me, that is an issue that is very important.”
During an initial read of the policy in 2024, board members expressed concerns that it did not cover all scenarios where officer-civilian encounters should be recorded. The belief of the board is that all non-incidental interactions should be captured on video.
“I would to have that as something we look at going forward; reviewing the body camera policy and seeing if there are any changes that can be made to it,” Church said, later adding, “To me, body cameras are one of the best things to happen in law enforcement over the years because it helps everybody. Everybody benefits from that.”
The board has also raised questions about the lack of dash cameras in MPD vehicles, which also falls under General Order 311.
According to the city, some but not all MPD vehicles have dash-mounted cameras
