 Right now on Denver police news. I'm Michael Hancock mayor Denver. How are you viral? She was hit from the crosswalk here and knocked over there. A Denver police news video on body cams gets worldwide attention. I think the body cams really speaks to how important transparency is to us as a police department. Then Just how many people does it take to pull a bowing 757? I bet you'll be surprised. Also the largest grassroots International effort in the world was right here in Denver and it was all to benefit the special Olympics. Our athletes look at law enforcement as heroes as the heroes that they are. And finally in the wake of the Ray Rice incident a look at domestic violence from behind the badge. Hello everybody and welcome to Denver police news. I'm sergeant Steve Warnacky. The Denver police department has a pilot program involving officers wearing body cameras and you saw it first here from Denver police news when we released this video on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages. Mayor Michael Hancock and police chief Robert White took part in the video and it resulted in international media attention for the Denver police department. If you haven't seen the full video here it is. Police departments have been using dashboard-mounted cameras for years. Here at the Denver police department we're taking that to a whole new level. At DPD we've started using body cameras and there's even some out on the streets right now. This particular manufacturer has two very distinct parts the camera and the battery. This camera records nine hours of video and it's easy to start. What if something happened right in front of you that you missed? With this device once you start recording the camera actually goes back in time and captures the last 30 seconds. The last 30 seconds. That's it. It's as easy as that. The camera can be worn on the glasses or on the collar. So why is this something the Denver police department is considering doing? Let's go find out. Chief why body cams? One of the more important things that we can do as a police agency is to ensure the community that we really value transparency. I think the body cams really speaks to how important transparency is to us as a police department. It reminds the officers that you know everything they do is subject to be held accountable for it. People make allegations and I think from the officer's perspective those that are out there doing the right thing just clears up those allegations. So we really want to know who's right and who's wrong. If it's on video it also is wearing a body cam. There it is right there. Let's talk about the costs associated with the body cams. Fortunately we have a grant and that's $1.5 million just to purchase other body cams. Then it's the space the storage space and that's a that $1.5 million is a one-time expense but the storage space that's a annual expense and that that could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it is an expensive undertaking but I think it is one that is well worth it. I envision that every officer that are that's out there in the street providing services meaning all six of our precincts our traffic division. I envision all of those officers at some point having body cam. Chief what do body cams mean to you? It means a lot to me because you know I really believe our success to do our mission with which is the prevention of crime is heavily dependent upon us having credibility in the community and I think the body cams in a certain way help creates that credibility. I'm Mayor Michael Hancock. I'm here on the 16th street mall. Today we are wearing body cameras to test out what's going on with our body cameras that we hope to put on our police officers throughout 2015 chief and the goal is to outfit every officer on the street with body cameras again to improve our accountability and our transparency. So today I'm going to be on the mall and I'm going to talk to some folks and kind of get their thoughts and views on this and see where we go with it. I'm Michael Hancock, Mayor Denver, how are you? So I have a question for you we're out testing something you notice the glasses I have on and this is a camera and we're considering outfitting all of our police officers with body cameras. What do you think about that? I think it's a good idea to protect both sides. A question that I had is about the recording because it doesn't actually record the entire time you have to turn it on and off. Is that correct? We have a policy that will say when you can turn it on and when you can turn it off. If they're on a crime scene or making the traffic stop then they're required to have it on. Right no I think it's a good idea like I said for both sides absolutely. Good. Michael Hancock, Mayor Denver. We're considering outfitting all of our patrol officers with body cameras in 2015 to record their interaction with citizens. What are your initial thoughts today? I would say it's a good idea. It seems like nowadays everything's electronic. Somebody's got something going on so. All right thank you. Special thanks to Mayor Hancock and Chief White. There have been a couple law enforcement related events to benefit the Special Olympics this year. The most recent of which involves teams of supporters pulling a full-sized jet with only a rope. Here's the story of teamwork, strength and a little fun all coming together for a great cause. Are you guys ready? We're out here to pull a plane and benefit Special Olympics. Line up here. The guy in the red hat's going to count us down okay. One, two, three, four. Second annual Special Olympics Colorado plane pull. We are pulling the plane today. It's our first time. It raised money for our 15,000 athletes across the state by pulling this small plane 158,000 pounds land fastest time. It's easier than it looks. Once you get it moving it's not bad but getting it moving is kind of hard. We have 50 teams. Over 1200 people are out here today. Pull together team. Who it is? Who it is? I'm so happy to see that all the recruits volunteer because I know they all volunteer to come here on their day off. Special Olympics is a group of young athletes that understand the importance of giving all that they have despite the challenges that they have. I mean I think they set an example for all of us. We'll be in 158 Colorado schools working to create more inclusive welcoming schools, reducing bullying. We don't receive federal, state or county tax dollars. We raise every dollar in the community so events like this are important or our athletes would not be able to participate. I just want to do really good and try our best. I'd like to thank the Special Olympics for allowing us to cover that event. I can say I've never had that perspective on a plane before. The law enforcement torch run was another Special Olympics fundraiser that was held right here in Denver and we're happy to report it was a huge success. Today is the culmination of the law enforcement torch run. Our flame of hope for Special Olympics Colorado is coming to the steps of the state capitol. When I was eight years old I decided to be a do Special Olympics. Law enforcement means the world to Special Olympics. Not only do they raise money to help support our programs but for the awareness and our athletes look at law enforcement as heroes as the heroes that they are and because of that this is incredibly meaningful to them to see law enforcement taking time out of their busy schedules to really carry the flame and and show the importance and the tremendous abilities of our athletes. I'm here to support the torch run by running in the torch run race today. Under the leadership of Chief White we have seen tremendous growth within the Denver Police Department. He has been such an advocate so just to see that shows the significance of the Denver Police Department's involvement. This is the 30th year in Colorado which is pretty amazing and I believe this will go on forever. This is the largest grassroots international effort in the world and this came to us not from us going to law enforcement from law enforcement coming to Special Olympics and saying we want to be a part of this and so it's incredible. Thanks everybody very much for your participation. We're joined now by a special guest my boss Commander Matt Murray is the Chief of Staff for the Denver Police Department. Thanks for being here sir. Absolutely she was special meaning because I'm your boss or just mostly because mostly because okay very good thank you for having me you bet I thought this was a great opportunity this week to talk about a serious topic which is domestic violence after the Ray Rice videos come out and has been all over the media. Okay you're right it's very timely I think a lot of people are interested in that it does raise the specter of domestic violence in our communities and I think it it draws some attention which is not always a bad thing. We have the unique opportunity to educate people about the stuff that we kind of see on a daily basis that maybe they haven't been privy to. Yeah I think a lot of people were shocked when they saw that video in fact it was very interesting because one of the things that's come out of the national conversation is that he had received a two game suspension and then when the video became public you know he was terminated and and it's caused quite an uproar in the NFL and so I think that does a good job of highlighting what people think domestic violence looks like and what it may really look like. So for those of you who haven't seen the video we do want to take a moment in and show you a clip of it I do want to warn everybody that what you're about to see is graphic so let's take a look at this. Okay so it's it's disturbing to watch there's nobody out there that doesn't think domestic violence is really bad but when you see it happen and you see the brutality of it it's a whole different level. I think this video does really highlight for people the level of force that sometimes is used I don't think people envision in in a disagreement that turns physical between a couple that this is what it really looks like. You know we respond to these calls daily sometimes to the same house over and over you actually teach around the country domestic violence. Yeah I teach police officers how to investigate how to properly investigate domestic violence cases and also try to give them a better understanding of what domestic violence is some of the misnomers people have in fact in recent years I've been an expert witness in court on domestic violence issues just testified last month in Boulder County so I do think I have a pretty good understanding of it I spent a lot of time looking at this issue. People say and and the police who respond to these addresses over and over again they say why doesn't this battered spouse leave? You know it's a great question and I think it's one that people immediately ask themselves and what I like to to say if I'm in front of a jury as an expert or when I'm teaching the officers is you know you have to try to put yourself in that person's shoes and we we look at their life through our perspective and our lens and so one of the things I like to say to folks is you know have you ever been in a job that you should have left that you hated and you didn't leave you know have you ever had a roommate that you really wanted to kick out but you didn't there are a lot of situations we find ourselves in as humans where we don't leave even when we know we should and domestic violence is no different you know these relationships get tied up you get children you get finances there's a whole myriad of things that are affecting this person's life not to mention the fact that you have someone who's trying to take control of another person's life and is usually pretty skillful at it. You know even if a person's never been in a domestic situation where they're being abused we've all broken up with somebody and sometimes it's a week sometimes it's a couple days but one of the phenomenon that happens is you look back and you remember the good times even just a few days later and you miss those things even if you even if you were the one to initiate the breakup so I think everybody can kind of relate to that. Well I think that you raise a really important dynamic here and that is that the human condition of love is also involved in this situation and a lot of times people are very committed and they don't want to be a quitter and they want to make this work and they have a huge hope in their heart that this person they love will change which obviously makes it much more complicated. One of the things you and I can talk about is the police perspective here and I've been to you know thousands of domestics over the years that I was on the street and it feels good oftentimes to take the aggressor to jail and you think wow you've you've really done something important and then you find out the next day or something that the person who was abused has bailed them out has gone to visit them has forgiven them has recanted their statement um all of those things happen and then that's frustrating so from a police perspective what do you tell the officers who encounter that? Obviously that's frustrating and there's no question it's frustrating and I think sometimes society or sometimes officers say hey if they're not willing to help themselves why should I be the one doing this but but let me flip the script a little bit and this is one of the things I say to officers I have a room sometimes with 75 people in it and most of them are police officers or victims advocates and I say raise your hand if you're ready to trust your life with the system now that's a very profound question are you ready to trust your life with the system and most people I mean it's rare that anybody would raise their hand and they're in the system and they're police officers and yet when we walk into a victim's house that's really what we're doing you know we're saying hey trust me I'm here to help I'm gonna make this better but likely out of all those thousands of domestic violences were there any that you spent more than four hours with so in their entire life this tiny cross section of their life you were there you intervened you helped but they got tomorrow to deal with and they got you know rent to pay and they got a lot of other situations that are involved in their complex life and you're not there anymore you're on another call and it's another day victims will often say to you I just wanted it to stop I didn't want you to take him to jail I think they're telling the truth that's absolutely where they're at they just wanted the violence to stop or you to prevent him from getting things worse we as the system look at this totally different our objective is to try and stop the future behavior as well to correct the problem so sometimes our interests seem to be at odds even though in the long run for the victim it's most likely better if we can get services to this family one of the things that's changed significantly over the last few years is the way we in which we handle domestic investigations I mean it used to be was up to the discretion of the police officer to even make an arrest that has been changed for several years now and if there's probable cause to you know know that a crime is committed we're obligated to arrest the primary aggressor what changes do you see coming up in the next few years with regards to how law enforcement handles domestics you know I think actually law enforcement is ahead of the curve on this I think we are actually starting to do a pretty good job here in Denver we're opening a center where all domestic violence is investigated out of one place and there's other services available so it's kind of a one-stop shop for people but I think what's actually more important is not so much what law enforcement is going to do but what society does you know I think that talks like this are just critical because it's really important for people to have a better understanding of why do we investigate this crime different I mean it's not like a robbery where a strange guy comes in with a gun and takes money this is somebody you live with this is somebody who's been setting up some of this for a long time and this person has to deal with it and so I think it's critical that society do a better job of understanding this crime and not trying to distance themselves by refusing to look at it from the victim's perspective I guess if there's one thing I would say is you've got to shift the focus from the victim so take the Ray Rice case where everybody's asking well why did she marry him and shift it to the elevator why did he punch her in the head because that's really what's important in this what she did later is irrelevant what's important is that he did what he did in that elevator and as a society are we willing to let that happen all right well thanks for the info absolutely thanks everybody for watching this episode of Denver police news I'm sergeant Steve Mornike special thanks to commander Matt Murray the Denver police chief of staff see you next time