Cops mostly love them, just like the in-car video.
Posted on: June 24, 2019 at 19:08:44 CT
Tigrrrr!
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The problem is the adminstration expense that goes with them.
"Giving" a dept body cams through grants is like gifting a friend or relative a cell phone. The expense of administering the volumes of data far surpasses the cost of the devices just like the monthly cell phone bill far exceeds the cost of the phone.
Do you pay officers OT to hang over after their shift and download and annotate the video? Do you have them come in during their shift and leave a district uncovered?
You have to pay for certifiable data storage that will hold up to courtroom scrutiny. Part of that fee covers having a person from the bodycam company show up to testify as needed.
It takes an additional IT person on staff dedicated to the data storage and to trouble shoot any problems....and they have to be on call 24/7 because of there is an urgent situation and the data gets lost, someone has to recover it.
Small departments have to determine how they are going to pay for their "free" cameras.
I used to carry a small tape recorder, as did several of my co-workers. We welcomed the opportunity to counter false accusations.