Posted July 27, 2017 05:03:08

Minneapolis officials have imposed stricter police body camera rules more than a week after officers failed to activate cameras during the fatal police shooting of Australian woman Justine Damond.

Mayor Betsy Hodges and acting police chief Medaria Arradondo said the new policy would require officers to turn on cameras anytime they are dispatched to a call or undertake any self-initiated activity.

The new policy takes effect on Saturday.

"What good is a camera if it is not being used when it may be needed the most?" Mr Arradondo said.

Ms Damond was shot shortly before midnight on July 15 by an officer responding to an emergency call she had placed about a possible assault in her residential neighbourhood.

The shooting sparked outrage in Australia and the United States.

Authorities said officer Mohamed Noor shot the 40-year-old woman through the window as she approached his patrol car.

Photo: Mohamed Noor shot Justine Damond as he sat in the passenger seat of a Minneapolis police car (AP: City of Minneapolis)

Neither his nor his partner's body camera were on, nor was dashboard camera activated.

The incident — still under investigation — led Mayor Hodges to request the resignation of the city's police chief.

Minneapolis rolled out body cameras late last year with use guidelines calling for officers to activate them "when safe" in a variety of situations including traffic stops, emergency responses, vehicle pursuits, searches and before any use of force.

What we know about Australian Justine Damond, the police shooting that took her life and the officer who fired the fatal shot.

Mr Arradondo said supervisors were being trained to audit the use of the cameras, while acknowledging that some officers were not using the cameras frequently enough.

"Many of our officers are using their cameras a lot, and as they're intended to be used," he said.

"But there are some officers, quite frankly, that are not using them nearly enough."

The new policy will still include some exceptions, but will reduce the amount of discretion officers have in using them, officials said.

The technology has been adopted by police departments across the country, increasing sharply after the 2014 police shooting of a teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked demonstrations over police treatment of minorities.

At least 14 people have been killed in the United States by officers wearing body cams that were either not turned on or inoperative since 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union said in December.

Reuters/AP

Topics: police, death, law-crime-and-justice, united-states