On May 1, North Augusta Public Safety's body cameras went live - but questions remain as to how accessible the video they capture will be to the public.
North Augusta is the first police agency in Aiken County to equip its officers with the cameras. The cameras are now standard-issue equipment for all 61 sworn officers, from the chief to every public safety officer who puts on a uniform for the department.
According to Lt. Tim Thornton, North Augusta Public Safety's spokesman, recordings will be retained for six months. If the footage is not needed, requested or flagged for any reason within that time, the recording is automatically deleted to free up space on the servers that house the video footage.
Officers are required to record any police action in which they take part, Thornton said, such as traffic stops or responses to calls at a residence.
When officers are on a break, such as for lunch, they are allowed to turn off the camera because they are no longer engaged in a police action, according to Thornton.
"If, for example, an officer goes to Circle K to get a soda, they don't have to turn it on," he said. "If, somehow during that stop, something tells them there's something going on, based on their intuition and experience to think, 'hey, I need to record this,' they're a quick push of the button away from recording. It may or may not become a police action. That's at the discretion an officer has if he feels something is going to happen. If he knows he's responding to a call, or clearly doing something that requires a police action, he's required, by policy, to activate the recorder."
What's unclear is exactly what footage from North Augusta police the public will be given access to see.
The state Senate passed legislation in late April that would give body cameras to departments all across the state.
The Senate's version of the bill, however, included an amendment tacked on by Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, that bars law enforcement agencies from releasing camera footage unless there is a complaint filed against an officer. Only crime victims and the attorneys would have access to the video.
The bill also directs the Criminal Justice Academy's governing board to create body camera guidelines within six months. Guidelines will include which officers should wear body cameras and how long camera data should be stored. State and local law enforcement agencies would then have three months to submit their own policies for council review.
The fate of the bill currently sits in the hands of the S.C. House, and if it is passed by that chamber, it then would have to be signed into law by Gov. Nikki Haley.
The policy of releasing body-cam video in North Augusta is still quite murky.
Thornton said though it's important to fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests, there needs to be a line drawn in terms of the justification - what requests are for legal issues and what requests are simply to satisfy a person's curiosity.
"We're absolutely trying to do the right thing, and the proper thing, and we have no reason to hide anything," Thornton said. "Law enforcement around the country knows how hard it is to maintain quality trust with the public. They don't want to have to make that work 10 times harder."
The issue comes on the heels of several national incidents that have called into question the actions of officers and suspects. These include an incident last year in Ferguson, Missouri, in which Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, was fatally shot by a police officer, and last month in North Charleston, in which Walter L. Scott, 50, was shot in the back eight times by officer Michael T. Slager. The Charleston shooting was caught on video by a bystander, and Slager was fired and now is facing murder charges.
In North Augusta, former North Augusta Public Safety officer Justin Craven fatally shot 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite on Feb. 9, 2014. Craven reportedly tried to initiate a traffic stop on Knox Avenue in North Augusta on suspicion of driving under the influence. A slow-speed chase ensued and ended in Edgefield County when Craven shot and killed Satterwhite as Satterwhite sat in his vehicle in front of his home on Rose Drive.
The Aiken Standard filed Freedom of Information Act requests earlier this month to multiple agencies in an effort to view dash-cam video of the shooting incident between Craven and Satterwhite.
The North Augusta Public Safety Department and the City of North Augusta earlier refused to release the dash-cam video until Craven's latest felony charge is decided in court.
The S.C. State Law Enforcement Division charged Craven in February 2015 with discharging a firearm into a vehicle while occupied. Craven was arrested and released on a $20,000 bond. Before that, an Edgefield County grand jury refused to lodge voluntary manslaughter charges and opted for the lesser charge of misconduct in office. Craven is expected to face both charges at trial later this year
Craven's attorney issued a motion on April 20, asking a South Carolina Circuit judge to prohibit the release of any dash-cam video on the grounds that the video should only be viewed in a courtroom "so as not to influence any prospective jurors to be selected for the trial of this case."
In response, The Aiken Standard and WRDW News-12 filed a motion to intervene late Wednesday with the Edgefield County Clerk of Court through media law attorney Taylor M. Smith IV.
Craven has been suspended as an officer, but remains a North Augusta City employee in the building standards department.
The City of North Augusta agreed to pay nearly $1.2 million to Satterwhite's estate to settle a wrongful-death suit filed by his brother.
Thornton declined to comment on the Craven case.
Scott Rodgers is the news editor at The North Augusta Star and has been with the paper since 2013. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottRodgers.