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City audit concludes Virginia Beach Police Department's Body-Worn Camera Program is compliant

Body camera
Posted at 10:59 PM, Jul 13, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-13 23:13:25-04

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The City of Virginia Beach released Tuesday details of a city audit of the Virginia Beach Police Department’s Body-Worn Camera Program, concluding that the program is compliant.

The audit covers the time from January 2020 to April 2021.

In April, Police Chief Paul Neudigate announced a change in policy, saying that officers would activate their body cam while they were responding to a call. Previously, the policy was that officers would activate the camera when they arrived on scene.

Additionally, all sworn officers with the department now have body cameras.

Body cameras have been a big source of controversy after a police officer shot and killed 25-year-old Donovon Lynch in March; the officer's body camera was not activated.

Chief Neudigate talked to News 3 Tuesday about the audit.

"I think what the audit reaffirms that we have a very good body worn camera policy and like anything else, there's always room for improvement. So, we'll make some adjustments,” he said. “It's really not on capturing body-worn camera video, but the tagging and the cataloguing on the back end to make sure that we're doing everything we can to have a very robust, solid BWC program."

The police department began implementing its program back in 2018.

You can read the full report on the audit here.