The Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority announced yesterday that they’d be testing a pilot program that will outfit transit officers with clip-on cameras that’ll effectively record everything they do on the job.

Citing the “public trust,” SEPTA transit police chief Thomas Nestel answered reporters’ questions during a press conference.

He noted when citizens know police are being recorded, they’ll have “faith that officers are acting properly.” The experiment will place cellphone-sized cameras onto several officers with the hopes that, if successful, a grant will provide cameras to all 275 officers on SEPTA’s force.

That’ll be in addition to the already 17,659 surveillance cameras the Authority has in its stations and vehicles, which means, basically, no matter where you are, when you’re on SEPTA, you’re on camera.

Video surveillance in large cities is commonplace both above and underground, in publicly-placed areas and privately-placed ones.

Philadelphia even has a program that hooks the city up with private cameras to better crack down on crime happening in neighborhoods.

Snapping cameras to officers sort of seems like a no brainer, and the next step –but how much is enough? And when it comes down to it, how can we be sure mounted cameras are being used for good?

Of course, the truth is we can’t be sure. Not yet, at least. But when mounted cameras have after a series of tests in other cities, the results have been fairly positive.

William A. Farrar, the Rialto, California police chief conducted a randomized controlled trial evaluating body-worn video cameras on officers a couple of years ago