Camera plan a work in progress

Police department still determining use policy, installing related equipment

Thirty body cameras were delivered to Mentor Police Department in February, but officers have yet to begin wearing them.

There are still several details to be worked out, Chief Kevin Knight said.

“Hardware needs to be installed in each marked car that allows for the body cam and incar video to sync up,” he said. “Also, our policy has not yet been finalized. Once that is done, we will train the officers and do a short period of testing prior to full implementation. I am hoping full implementation will be no later than this fall or late summer.”

The cameras will be worn by uniformed patrol officers and supervisors, but not necessarily all the time, Knight said.

“This is what we are trying to decide,” he said.

In November, City Council approved entering a contract with WatchGuard Video to buy the Vista body-worn cameras for $103,060. The city had budgeted $100,000 for the item.

WatchGuard has provided the department’s in-car video cameras and support since 2013. That played a significant role in determining which company to contract with.

“When we consider the number and types of recordings we will likely have with the body cameras, it is important for the recordings to be stored and processed in the same manner as the in-car recordings,” police Capt. Andrew B. Lehner said in November.

The number purchased is anticipated to be sufficient for each officer on duty to wear a camera while the remainder are charging at the station for use by the next shift, Lehner said.

“If the need arose, we could have plain-clothes officers and detectives also wear a body camera for certain assignments,” he said.

The Vista system offers high-definition resolution, 130-degree field of view and an adjustable lens that rotates 40 degrees to allow for proper viewing from differing mounting positions. When it becomes activated, it will automatically activate the in-car camera.

“This will allow multiple recordings on one incident,” Lehner said.

The city and police administration decided a couple of years ago to phase in body cameras, and the decision wasn’t prompted by any particular incident, Knight said.

SUBMITTED This is one of the new body camera devices Mentor Police Department purchased for its officers.