Daleville Indiana Police have added cameras to their protective vests. The cameras capture video of police in action and can protect both the officer and the citizen. Daleville Police Chief James King hopes to get cameras for seven more officers. Currently, Daleville police pack radios, protective vests, lethal weapons, skilled ears and eyes, and now, an eye that never blinks.
"You’re looking at the Wolfcam body camera," said Daleville Police Chief James King. With a Homeland Security grant, Daleville police bought seven small video cameras – a new layer of protection that rides atop the bulletproof vest.
"It’s accountability and since we’ve had them, it’s actually cut down on our complaints," said the chief.
If a citizen is mistreated, it’s captured on camera. If an officer is falsely accused, they are protected.
Like recently, when a woman complained an officer was rude and wrongly ticketed her for her dog running loose, but "we looked at the video, we watch the dog run out in front of our officer’s car," King said.
On urgent runs, it can record pursuits and what happens when the officer leaves his car and goes into woods or a house?
Car dashboard cams costing 10 times more cannot do that.
Also, in rural areas where his officers are often alone, King says, “with a lot of the police shootings, if something did happen to one officer out there, this camera being on, it will at least give us a suspect and somewhere to start.”
Source: wthr.com