Laguna Beach Police to Wear Compact Tape Recorders : Law enforcement: Officials believe the devices, to be used to record contacts with citizens, will be useful in resolving disputes with residents and in reducing liability claims.

Seeking to cut claims filed against the city, Laguna Beach police officers will soon begin wearing miniature recorders on their belts to tape conversations with citizens.

The decision stems in part from the department “having our fair share of claims and lawsuits,” Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. said. “I want to try to do something to reduce the liability for this city.”

The idea of recording contacts between officers and citizens is catching on in Orange County. Six months ago, the Sheriff’s Department became the first law enforcement agency in the nation to install video cameras in all of its cruisers.

Officers in Huntington Beach and Garden Grove also make some use of audio or video recorders, but according to a survey conducted by the Laguna Beach department, Brea is the only police force in Orange County that requires its officers to wear and use tape recorders.

Police officials in Laguna Beach and Brea say recording devices can be extremely helpful in court, in resolving disputes with residents and in heading off liability claims.

“I clearly see it as an officer safety issue and an officer survival issue,” Purcell said. “They will not have to go through all the stress and trauma of these frivolous type complaints.”

In Laguna Beach, officials say the size of claims against the police has risen in recent years. In 1991, the city paid $100,000 to a man who was kicked by an officer during an arrest captured on videotape. Last year, the city spent $450,000 to settle a case regarding a homeless man who died of injuries sustained after being run over by a police car.

Those high-profile settlements likely would not have been affected by the use of recorders. However, Purcell said claims against police would generally be “significantly reduced” if the officers’ conversations with the public were recorded.

While the plan has the backing of the city and the previous police union leadership, the current union board has raised questions about it.

Detective George Ramos, who heads the Laguna Beach Police Assn., said there is sufficient uneasiness among officers about the “Big Brother” aspects of the plan that he would want the membership to vote on the use of tape recorders--and such a vote might not come before July.

City officials, however, said it is unlikely that union approval is required. In addition, Purcell said he moved forward “in good faith” after the previous board’s endorsement.

Officers will likely begin using the recorders in February, he said.

In Brea, where officers have been wearing tape recorders since the late 1970s, the devices have been very helpful, Brea Police Capt. Jim Oman said.

“We probably go to court with them a couple times a month where the question of what people said becomes an issue, whether the officer advised them of their rights or whether the officer said this or that,” he said. “Those tapes are very helpful to resolve those issues.”

Hal Snow, assistant director of the Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training in Sacramento, said that the use of both audio- and video-recording devices is increasing, statewide and throughout the nation.

“Video recording is probably taking the place of sound recordings in a lot of respects and in a lot of cases,” he said. The more expensive cameras tend to have “somehow a calming effect” on crowds and at parties, he said.

In fact, Purcell said, he will ask the City Council during upcoming budget discussions to approve the purchase of 11 video cameras for police patrol cars. Although they cost $5,200 apiece, Purcell said the devices are “worth their weight in gold” when claims arise.

Video recorders have been very helpful in Huntington Beach, where they have been placed in sergeants’ patrol cars since 1987, police Lt. Patrick Gildea said. Police became convinced of the value of video recordings after a 1986 riot near the Huntington Beach Pier.

The use of videotapes made by private citizens led to the conviction of some of the “main players” in the riot, Gildea said. Some defendants had denied they were at the disturbance, Gildea said, but after viewing tapes “several of (their attorneys) on the spot said, ‘What can we negotiate?’ ”

Huntington Beach police also wear audio recorders on their belts, Gildea said, but use them at their own discretion.

Some Garden Grove officers also wear recorders, said Sgt. Randy Tucker, but they are not required to use them. Video cameras are used in Garden Grove only for officer training.

The Laguna Beach department is now in the process of setting policy on when officers must use the recorders, Deputy Chief Jim Spreine said. While some Laguna Beach officers have been concerned that the recorders will be used to monitor their every word, Purcell said that is not the case.

For example, the recorders may remain off when an officer is taking a crime report, he said. In more volatile situations, however, Purcell said, the recorders should prove to be a valuable tool.

“If we have a domestic disturbance, the officer would be required to have (the recorder) on,” he said. “Even though husbands and wives are literally slugging it out, they can turn on an officer in a New York second.”

Although various departments may advise their officers to notify residents they are being taped, Snow said, officers are required to mention the presence of the recorders only in advance of interrogating a person.

Snow said he is aware of no court challenges to the use of such devices.

Taping conversations is not foreign to the Laguna Beach police or other departments, because most already monitor their emergency phone calls, Spreine said. The practice is particularly useful when a resident complains about dispatcher courtesy or police-response time.

“When we play it back for the citizen . . . they often don’t realize how, under emergency situations, they were extremely loud, demanding; they were rude,” Spreine said.

The portable recorders will be similarly helpful, he said, adding that “when you play these tapes, it diffuses the whole complaint.”

Like those carried by Brea police officers, the compact tape recorders Laguna Beach will purchase are slender devices that take up little space. They weigh less than six ounces, are about two inches wide, 5 1/2 inches long and less than one inch thick.

Laguna Beach police officers will wear theirs in custom leather holsters, which ride on their gun belts. Purcell said some of his officers have already purchased their own recorders.

But Ramos of the police union said problems must still be resolved before Laguna Beach officers will be comfortable with the new policy.

For example, the union wants a one-year “break-in period” for the officers during which they would not be held accountable if they forget to turn on the recorder. In addition, officers want further assurance that the tapes will not be monitored unless a complaint arises, he said.

“In general, police officers tend to be honest people and they don’t like anybody questioning that, and that’s kind of the feeling they got about this,” Ramos said.

For the most part, Ramos said, officers understand that the recorders can serve as “an impartial witness,” protecting both them and the residents.

The union does want permission for officers to record conversations with supervisors, “just to verify everything all the way around,” Ramos said, noting that such tapings would be important if, for example, an officer thinks an order is “inappropriate.”

“Everything usually rolls downhill,” Ramos said. “It would be nice to find a way to stop it just above your head.”

Purcell, however, said the recorders will not be used for such purposes.

“As far as routinely taping their supervisors or supervisors routinely taping officers, absolutely not,” he said.