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The Rochester Police Department is not meeting department goals for activating body-worn cameras at traffic stops, data from a newly launched dashboard shows.
RPD typically conducts 2,000 to 3,000 traffic stops per quarter. While that number has increased slightly recently, the proportion of stops conducted with an activated BWC remains around 92 percent. This is below the department’s goal of a 95 percent activation rate per quarter
The BWC Activation dashboard was developed under a 2022 memorandum of understanding between RPD and United Christian Leadership Ministry to facilitate information exchange on police procedures. UCLM previously reviewed RPD’s BWC program in 2018, giving it “generally high marks” for transparency, clarity, and guidelines. It hopes that, through this partnership with the RPD, public safety can be enhanced with open and transparent communication.
“This dashboard is really a window into how we’re doing—section by section, battalion by battalion, and when it comes to turning our promises about accountability into actual day-to-day practices,” Mayor Malik Evans said at the announcement of the dashboard in early December.
“Transparency builds trust,” agrees Dwight Fowler, president of UCLM. “This dashboard isn’t just about data, it’s about creating a space where the community, law enforcement, and city officials can work together more effectively.”
Law enforcement BWCs were first introduced in the United States about a decade ago and have been widely adopted since then. As of 2020, 79 percent of all police officers and 68 percent of sheriffs’ offices reported working in departments with BWC programs, according to a 2023 report by the Police Executive Research Forum.
RPD first started to research the use of BWCs at the beginning of 2014. Then-mayor Lovely Warren and Locust Club president Michael Mazzeo announced a BWC program at the end of that year. Securing city approval and funding for the program, buying equipment and training personnel took a year and a half to complete.
The department announced that officers were first wearing BWCs midway through 2016. (The dashboard’s data stretches from the third quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2025.) In the BWC project’s final announcement in 2021, RPD said there were about 500 cameras for patrol personnel.
In Rochester, BWC activation is required for four categories: arrests and prisoner transports, pursuits, stops of persons or vehicles, and use-of-force incidents. UCLM has chosen to start with traffic stops as its initial focus for this dashboard. RPD’s goals for BWC activation are also included on the dashboard.
The Patrol division made 75 percent of all traffic stops during the recorded time period and had a BWC activation rate of 93 percent.
The Community Affairs division, which includes the Community Relations Unit, Neighborhood Service Centers, and Crime Prevention Officers, recorded 15 percent of traffic stops with an activation rate of 94 percent. The other 10 percent of traffic stops were divided between the Office of the Chief, the Administration, Investigations, and Tactical divisions.
The only geographic data provided by the dashboard comes from the Patrol division, which divides the city into the Lake, Clinton, Genesee, and Goodman sections in the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast, respectively.
Patrol units in the Lake section had the most traffic stops with 5,140 total and a BWC activation rate of 93 percent. The Clinton section had the next most with 4,088 traffic stops and an activation rate of 94 percent.
Genesee and Goodman, which cover the southwest and southeast part of the city, had far fewer traffic stops with 1,679 and 1,608, respectively. The section’s BWC metrics were lower than the other sections, with a 91 percent activation rate.
On a more granular scale, RPD officers conducting 20 or more traffic stops have a goal of activating their BWC 95 percent of the time, while those conducting 20 or fewer are targeting 75 percent of the time.
By that measure, RPD is falling well below its goal. This is particularly true for officers who make over 20 traffic stops per quarter; according to the Beacon’s analysis, from 2023 to 2025, 59 percent of officers in that category met their BWC activation target.
Those making fewer traffic stops performed better, with 91 percent of officers in the under-20 category meeting their BWC activation target during that period.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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