Thursday, December 9, 2010

Body Worn Video Heralded a "Game Changer"

Body Worn Video is taking hold in police departments nationwide.  More forces are starting to employ this state of the art aid in their daily beats -- about a handful in each state.  And the more these devices become operational, the more we are hearing about the necessity of using them.

Most officers don't know what they're missing until they start using the comfortable, reliable and easy-to-use systems, which are worn on their headgear. In Burnsville, Minnesota, for example - dashboard video cameras are being removed in favor of the body worn devices on each and every officer.  The benefits far outweigh the critiques, as far as Hunter Systems Group is concerned.

The portable video recorders are constantly in "active" status, and with the touch of the record button, the previous 30 seconds of "live action" becomes part of the intentional recording.  Recordings then become a digital part of the police department's RMS, allowing for easy archival, retrieval and management of files.  The files are password protected, and are not able to edited.  This is especially helpful is credibility issues, since the recording cannot be altered.  With such indisputable evidence, cases develop -- or are dismissed for lack of supporting evidence -- more quickly than ever before.

In these cases, the body worn video systems, while an expense to the city or state operating budgets, are predicted to more than pay for themselves in fewer fruitless cases being pursued,  and processing efficiencies that are made possible with these "gold-standard" accessories.  These are not just niceties to a police department -- they are absolute requirements.  No longer viewed as a product of the future, body worn video has entered the scene and shown its utmost worth.

Hopefully more police departments, government agencies, border patrols and law enforcement everywhere will soon follow suit,  This trend has exploded, and we don't see it dissipating anytime soon.

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