Police body cams moving further into the 21st century

C OST is a significant piece of any police department’s decision on whether to outfit officers with body cameras — it certainly was a factor as Oklahoma City weighed the move. Ever-evolving technology has the potential to ease those concerns considerably.

USA Today reported this week on a smartphone app being tested by police in Jersey City, N.J., that has the potential to do everything expected of a police body camera, at a fraction of the cost of traditional body cams.

“If the industry needs anything, it’s competition and innovation,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum. This app provides exactly that.

Called CopCast, the app created by a Brazilian think tank can be downloaded onto officers’ phones an onto supervisors’ desktops. With the tap of a button, audio and video from an officer’s phone can be streamed live by supervisors at headquarters, with GPS technology showing the exact location of the officer.

The officer hits another button to end the stream. The full encounter is automatically saved on a server.

USA Today noted that with many of the body cameras on the market, which is dominated by only a few companies, officers must download all their video after their shift, “meaning the video must then be reviewed and organized before supervisors can look over any footage.”

The issue of when supervisors could review footage was part of a challenge to Oklahoma City’s pilot program by the Fraternal Order of Police. That challenge placed the program on hold last year. After five months of negotiations, the union and the police chief worked out their differences and the program was given the green light again.

But it’s costly. The program, initially involving 100 cameras and to be shared among 150 officers, was expected to cost about $400,000 for the first year. That included the cameras (at about $900 apiece) and data storage, as well as the salaries of six new employees — four working for the police department and involved in technical maintenance and the handling of digital evidence, and two for the city focusing on legal issues.

After the union issues were resolved, Police Chief Bill Citty said the department hoped eventually to have 260 of these cameras in use. That represents a sizable investment.

According to USA Today, Jersey City is the first U.S. police department to try the app-based model. It has been testing the system for several months with 10 officers, and was expected to sign an agreement this week to expand it to as many as 250.

The city’s chief innovation officer says the app allows Jersey City to shop around for more inexpensive storage and support. The software also is open source, which lets departments that have developers tinker with the software.

Jersey City’s mayor told the newspaper: “All police leadership need to understand that this is the future.”

The use of police body cams has grown considerably in recent years. Easing the financial burden placed on cities to pay for these tools should ensure their expanded use in the years ahead, benefiting the public and the officers alike.