Where were the body cameras during Wednesday’s police shooting?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A police shooting on the east side left one man dead on Wednesday, and police say that neither of the detectives involved in the shooting were wearing body cameras at the time.

I-Team 8 talked with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department to hear the latest status on the department implementing body cameras.

“A huge goal of getting the cameras was to increase the amount of transparency we have,” says Lt. Scott Kulig, the body-worn cameras systems administrator with IMPD. “I’ve had many officers say that they wouldn’t go back to the street without a camera.”

Kulig tells I-Team 8 that the department first purchased 270 new cameras costing roughly $400,000 in 2019. More cameras were purchased later, for a total of 1,370 body-worn cameras available today.

When two detectives shot and killed James Williams, 33, a suspect in a recent homicide, investigators leaned on footage from the cameras at the gas station where the shooting happened.

Kulig says most investigators or detectives won’t wear body cameras unless they are doing other “uniform work.”

I-Team 8 asked if IMPD detectives would have a body camera if there were enough available.

“If we had enough cameras available? Yes. We would equip everybody on the department if we had enough cameras. We don’t,” Kulig said.

Kulig says while they work to get more money through a federal grant for more body cameras, the focus remains on getting them for street patrol and increasing transparency between police and the community.

“We made sure we gave cameras first (to) the people who engage the community the most,” Kulig said. “A lot of times they get complaints where it’s a ‘he said, she said’ (situation, and) the cameras are kind of a tiebreaker.”