On July 17th of
this year, the Canton Police Department gained approval from City Council
members to purchase Body Worn Camera (BWC) devices. As a result, the agency purchased thirty-three
(33) Watch Guard Vista body cameras for Officers in the Uniform Patrol
Division, Traffic Division, and Code Enforcement. In addition, Detectives in the Criminal
Investigation Division will also have a BWC at their disposal when they are out
in the field conducting case investigations.
Currently, the department is working with the City’s Information
Technology Department and the BWC vendor to provide training to all Officers
about the device’s nomenclature and policy that governs the use of the camera
system.
The Police Department will begin deploying
the BWC devices in the aforementioned divisions after the first of the year. They want the community to know what to
expect from the new technology, including the program’s benefits and
limitations before its implementation. The BWC will be worn on the front of the Officer’s uniform;
it records high definition resolution video/audio and has a wide angle field of
view.
Furthermore, video evidence of a
single incident captured by the BWC will be auto linked with the Department’s
in-car cameras of their police units in
an effort to deliver a more accurate portrayal of events encountered by
officers.
The agency strongly feels the implementation
of the BWC program will enhance its service to the community for the following
reasons:
Ø Strengthen police accountability by documenting incidents and encounters between officers and the
public;
Ø Preventing confrontational situations by improving officer professionalism and the behavior of people being
recorded;
Ø Resolving officer-involved incidents and
complaints by providing a more accurate record of events;
Ø Improving agency transparency by allowing the public to see video evidence of police activities and
encounters;
Ø Identifying and correcting internal agency
problems by revealing officers who engage in misconduct and
agency-wide problems;
Ø Strengthening officer performance by using footage for officer training and monitoring;
Ø Improving evidence documentation for investigations and prosecutions;
With that said, the Department
also realizes there are some limitations that go along with the many benefits
of the program. They include: an
officer's body movement can diminish what the camera is able to record (field
of view) and the body camera can record what happened at a given point in time;
however, they can't account for human perception — what an officer believes
they saw — or take into account what information the officer received or knew
before he or she got to the scene.
Chief of Police Mark J.
Mitchell stated, “We are very eager and excited to implement the Body Worn
Camera System after the first of the New Year.
I want to highlight the fact that our Officers do an excellent job of
professionally serving this community every day. The addition of this program will be another added
step in our desire to strengthen police accountability, improve agency transparency
and continue to build the vital trust we need with our citizens, especially
during this time in our nation’s history.” 