Schenectady enforces body cams
Devices to be worn by patrol officers on calls introduced March 4
Whether responding to reports of shots fired or pulling over a motorist, the 15 city police patrol officers now outfitted with tiny body-worn cameras must remember to activate them when responding to a call.
Assistant Police Chief Mike Seber said Tuesday that holds true for “anything that is a call for service that is criminal act” no matter if it’s a violation, misdemeanor or felony.
After extensive training and testing, the Panasonic Arbitrator MK3 devices were rolled out on March 4.
Initially, there were some glitches that Seber said Tuesday were resolved, along with tweaks to software.
“For the most part, everything is right on course, as we hoped,” he said, adding that the police officers have adapted well to wearing the cameras.
He also said that about a halfdozen police cars now have a Panasonic in-car video system
that will synchronize with the body-worn cameras and vice versa.
All 34 police cars will eventually have that same capability, Seber said.
Police brass are scheduled to meet later this week to discuss and evaluate how things are going before dispensing at least 10 cameras weekly until all unformed officers in the roughly 160-member force have them, Seber said.
He recounted that the department had to set up a separate system to make the video footage gathered by the officers in the field available to prosecutors and defense attorneys in the event it is needed in a court case.
Last year, the department in announcing it had selected the MK3 said the cameras cost $710 each and that the total cost would be about $165,000 for 120 cameras, software, on-site training, accessories, docks, and an extended warranty among other things.
The Albany Police Department began using body cameras in 2017. Police in Troy will begin using the cameras later this year.