As officials review widely circulated bystander videos of the fatal police shooting of a homeless man in Madison, Wisconsin, one key perspective won’t be emerging: footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras. Unlike nearly every other similarly sized city, Madison doesn’t require its police to wear them. The absence of that footage has left residents in the dark about key moments leading up to the shooting, when police say Corey Ruiz pulled a knife during a struggle with four officers, injuring one of them. That officer then fired the shots, according to police. All four officers have been placed on administrative leave pending a state investigation. In the meantime, the deadly encounter has reignited a contentious debate about body cameras, one that has long vexed local officials and pitted some of the city’s progressive groups against each other. This past November, the Madison Common Council rejected a proposal to redirect funding from a police oversight group to a body-camera program. A new proposal to allocate US$414,800 for a three-year roll out of the program is expected to be approved by the legislative body. Police Chief John Patterson has described the proposal as “modest,” adding that the cameras had become “essential tools for the modern police officer.” Law enforcement experts tend to agree and some expressed surprise that the city’s nearly 500 officers weren’t already using the cameras. “There are very, very few agencies of that size that do not have a body-worn camera program,” said Michael D. White, a criminal justice professor at Arizona State University who led training on camera adoption for the U.S. Department of Justice. “Madison has a long-standing tradition of being an innovative, progressive police department, so it’s startling,” he added. As far back as 2016, roughly 80 per cent of police departments with 500 or more sworn officers had acquired body-cameras — a figure that White said was now approaching 100 per cent. Over the last decade, Madison officials have repeatedly debated adopting the cameras. Committees have borne subcommittees, which have produced feasibility studies, amendments and hours of debate. Local officials primarily blame budget concerns, along with political inertia, for the ongoing stalemate. Another common source of opposition, identified in a 2021 feasibility study, came from community groups worried the cameras would be used to surveil and criminalize marginalized groups. “I cannot approve something that doesn’t have a policy and procedure behind it that is potentially going to hinder the community more than help the community,” said Veronica Figueroa, then a member of the body-worn camera subcommittee. As camera adoption has become more widespread in recent years, those concerns have largely faded away, according to Common Council President Sabrina Madison. But she said local officials have largely been preoccupied by another issue: finding shelter for a homeless population that has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was like: if we’re going to figure out anything, we’re going to figure out how to fund shelter operations,” Madison told The Associated Press on Thursday. “So the last couple years, that’s where the focus has been.” The city did briefly conduct a body camera pilot program in the summer of 2024. A subsequent report found the cameras had little impact on officers’ behaviour or the community’s feeling toward police. Dr. Broderick Turner, an independent researcher who analyzed the program and authored the report, noted the length of the pilot — only 90 days — meant there was little time for anyone to notice a meaningful difference. And he described demographic differences in the city’s response. “Black communities tend to want body cameras, but Madison is majority white,” Turner said. “The groups opposed were less impacted by crime and less impacted by policing.” For some in the city, Wednesday’s shooting has surfaced memories of Tony Robinson, an unarmed 19-year-old who was fatally shot by Madison police in 2015. His death ultimately led to the creation of the Office of the Independent Police Monitor. This past winter, Madison lawmakers shot down a budget proposal that would have paid for a body camera program by cutting funds to the monitor. Katey Nelson, a member of the police civilian oversight board, said the amendment had presented residents with a “false choice.” “There are cuts that can be made with the Madison Police Department or the County Sheriff’s department, but they’re trying to pit similar agendas against each other,” she said. “Nobody can agree on anything,” Nelson added. “Now we’re here, looking at another police shooting where we don’t have what we need to make sure the officers are held accountable.” Jake Offenhartz, The Associated Press
