Are Warner Robins police using their bodycams like they should?

"There's a lot of benefits all the way around," said Warner Robins Police Chief Brett Evans.

The source of those benefits? Bodycams.

The department's own policy requires officers to turn theirs on "to record all contacts with citizens in the performance of official law enforcement activities."

But do they?

After spending a day watching superior court proceedings, one Houston County man doesn't think so.

"The public defender asked for copies of videos," Charles Scales said. "The prosecutor jumped up and said, 'Not available, it got lost' or something, and the judge said, 'OK, move on.'"

Defense attorney Frank Hogue said he's seen video go missing.

"Yes, I have had that happen and it always raises a suspicion because in many cases a video can be helpful to a defendant," he said.

But Hogue admits out of the hundreds of cases he's handled, he's seen that happen only a handful of times.

So who do you believe? Are the cameras being used like they should be or are officers leaving you in the dark?

13WMAZ wanted to know, so we requested the department's own records.

We obtained reports for every traffic stop conducted at specific dates and times between June and December of 2018.

The results?

Of 25 stops within our specific request window, the department said 14 were still open cases and not available for public release.

However, of the remaining 11, all of the incidents did have accompanying body camera footage.

It wasn't a perfect result though. At 1 traffic stop that 2 officers responded to, the department confirmed only 1 of those officers recorded body camera footage of the incident.

However, in 11 such incidents we examined, that was the only example of improper bodycam usage we encountered and that same officer did use his camera properly in other stops we reviewed.

To be clear, this was not a scientific study nor was it exhaustive--checking every single police case video would be nearly impossible.

However, as far as recent traffic stops go, this audit suggests Warner Robins Police Department is mostly following its own rules.

That's a welcome result for Chief Evans.

"I wouldn't expect perfection but I'm very glad we did well in the audit," he said.

Though he admits it's not always a perfect system.

"There are times when it doesn't get turned on, absolutely," said Evans.

But he says his department strives for a high level of compliance and officer support for the technology has helped them toward their goal.

"Having officers that work here that remember the days when it was really getting off the ground and for them to be able to come in and talk to the younger officers and say 'look guys, this has saved me more than once'" has been very helpful, Evans said. "The buy-in was very important to us."

And the benefits, he says, run both ways.

"It protects the officers, it protects the citizens and, of course, its evidentiary values has been proven," said Evans.