St. Olaf Policies

Body Worn Camera

Category: Public Safety
Last updated: 09/25/2025

Statement

The purpose of this policy is to set forth guidelines for the use, management, storage, and retrieval of wearable video/audio body worn camera (BWC) recording equipment and recordings. 

Purpose

Audience

Definitions

Policy

Guideline:

Saint Olaf College Public Safety recognizes the value of video/audio recordings initiated by officers for the purpose of documenting criminal activity, policy violations, increased accountability, transparency to the community, officer and department training and development. All personnel assigned these devices are required to adhere to the procedures outlined in this policy. Any intentional misuse or abuse of the BWC units, or failure to follow the terms of this policy, will result in disciplinary action. (See SOG Disciplinary Action)

Confidentiality:

All recording media, images, and audio are property of Saint Olaf College Public Safety and will not be copied, released, or disseminated in any form or manner outside the parameters of applicable law, this policy, and otherwise without the written consent of the Director. Under no circumstances will any member of Saint Olaf College Public Safety make a personal copy of any recorded event without prior written permission of the Director.

Operating Procedure

1. Officers must receive training on the use of BWC prior to use in the field, and shall be required to operate the BWC according to such department training, which shall be developed using best practices, including manufacturer’s recommendations. 

1. Personnel may only use those BWCs issued or approved by the department.  The wearing/use of personally owned recording devices is not authorized.

1. Officers must test the equipment to ensure that it is in good working order at the beginning of each shift, which necessarily includes that:

1. 1. The BWC is properly positioned;

1. 2. The BWC is fully charged;

1. 3. The BWC have sufficient capacity to record during the shift; and 

1. 4. The BWC are otherwise fully functional.

Any problems must be promptly reported to the shift supervisor.  Damaged equipment shall not be used in the field until repairs have been completed.  

1. Unless it is unsafe or impractical to do so, officers should activate the BWC prior to arriving on scene or making contact with involved parties for each citizen encounter related to a call for service, enforcement action, field interview, public encounters in which an incident or complaint may arise and any other Public Safety action where the use of the BWC would not violate the reasonable expectation of privacy, as defined by the law, unless the officer is legally present and responding to an incident. 

1. Officers should use their professional judgment to determine whether it is reasonable to turn the BWC off, or alternately switching to audio only: 

1. 1. In restrooms, locker rooms, or any other place that individuals have a heightened expectation of privacy;

2. During any conversation where sensitive or confidential information may be revealed and the individual involved has asked for privacy to be maintained (i.e. undercover law enforcement personnel, sexual assault victims, etc.);

3. When persons are nude or when sensitive human areas are exposed, unless activated in response to an incident;

4. Upon request of the individuals being recorded when the officer, in their professional judgment, determines that it is reasonable to comply with the individual’s request;

5. In situations where privacy concerns outweigh any legitimate public safety interests in recording.

5. BWC shall be used only in conjunction with official St Olaf Public Safety duties and may not be used to record personal activity.  

1. Officers with BWC are prohibited from intentionally recording conversations with department or College personnel while not on an official call for service without the permission of the Director.  If an officer unintentionally creates a recording, the officer will advise the shift supervisor so the recording can be addressed.  

1. When feasible and without putting anyone in danger, officers should advise all persons present that the interaction is being recorded.  When recording in an area where individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy, the officer must notify the person that the officer is recording the interaction and such notification must be recorded.

1. In the event that the BWC are not turned on as required above, the officer must submit a written explanation of the reason for the non-activation of the camera system, make a notation in the incident report or both, no later than the conclusion of the shift. 

1. Once activated as required by this policy, if an officer turns off a BWC camera prior to the conclusion of an incident, or otherwise turns the device around so it only picks up audio, officers are required to document the reason for doing so by the conclusion of the shift.  

1. The existence of a video or audio recording should be documented on any incident report, as applicable.  

1. As a general practice, officers should review all recorded media as part of the completion of an incident when documenting the incident, or as directed by a supervisor.

Control and Management of Recordings

1. When, according to Federal, State and College legal standards, the video or audio is no longer needed for evidentiary purposes, it shall be erased and destroyed in accordance with department procedures. BWC recordings retained outside the department (e.g. on the Axon website) will have e-mail notice of pending deletion.
2. Any data stored at Axon and not attached to a case, identified for training or tagged for another reasonable purpose, shall be automatically erased after 90 days.

III. Administrative Responsibilities

1. It is incumbent on supervisors to ensure officers’ use of BWCs adheres to this policy and training guidelines.  The Command Staff of the Department will review BWC recordings for officer safety and appropriate tactics at their discretion. 
2. Officers may review their recordings at any time to perform the requirements of their job (e.g. writing incident reports, prior to legal testimony, etc.). Likewise, supervisors and administrators may review officers’ BWC recordings at any time or, if the recording is not in the video system, a supervisor may ask for and receive an officer’s video recording at any time for the purpose of reviewing a recorded statement.  
3. Requests for copies of videos for internal administrative or supervisory review and department training purposes must be made to the Director or designee.  If the request is deemed appropriate, the Director or designee will produce and distribute the copy as directed. 
4. If there is a hearing or other disciplinary matter involving the officer, the officer will be allowed to review the recording(s) of the incident in question.  Prior to reviewing the recordings, they should be provided and read the following statement:

“You are about to view recorded images of an incident of which you were involved.  You should understand that the recordings capture a scene and are not reproductions of what you were thinking, seeing, hearing, or otherwise sensing at the time of the incident.  It is important that you provide your perspective and experience from your recollection as best you can.  Additionally, the recorded images are not exact duplications of the events as they unfolded.  Digital media is compressed data that does not capture every movement, but creates a representation of the scene.” 

1. Orders issued by a court of competent jurisdiction for the production of BWC recordings should be directed to the Director or designee. A copy of such orders must be promptly provided to St Olaf’s Vice President for Student Affairs and the General Counsel. Requests for public records shall be directed to the Director or designee. 
2. Other than as described above, no copies of department issued BWC will be produced. Any questions regarding a request for video/audio distribution should be forwarded to the Director.

G. Annual system-wide audits of randomly selected digital media will be overseen at the Director’s discretion, which may involve outside auditors.

Exceptions to This Policy

Policy Implementation

Consequences of Violating this Policy

Related Information

History