Simplifying The Officer Body Camera Experience: Buying Considerations
Jojo Tran, Telepath Corporation, CALSAGA Associate Member
Picture this: a typical uniformed security officer carries radio, remote speaker microphone, baton, pepper spray, handcuffs, gloves, at least one smartphone and a personal device, while wearing ballistic body armor under their uniform. That’s a lot of gear to carry around and be ready to run within an instant.
Now there is a nationwide push to add body-worn cameras (BWCs) to the mix.
As any security agency can attest, however, new technology deployments can have unexpected impacts that negate a solution’s intended value. This is no different for BWCs.
Before purchasing, agencies should recognize how a new piece of technology can impact security officers’ ability to successfully do their job and protect the community.
To get the best results, reduce complexity, and ultimately help security officers better achieve their mission, here are things to consider when evaluating a BWC solution.
BODY-WORN CAMERAS ARE NOT ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL
Security officers are obviously different shapes and sizes. They have to attach or carry various items while on patrol, and are often wearing different types of uniforms that affect the way they wear their gear. These variations can have a direct impact on whether a BWC can be used successfully.
In the same way a good radio speaker microphone (RSM) can adapt to various users, a good BWC should too. Officers should not have to compromise the way they operate, as that immediately minimizes a BWC’s value and detracts from its promise of aiding in evidence capture.
When evaluating BWCs consider wearing options, camera field of view, and camera be positioned or rotated based on how an officer wears it. These factors allow users to wear BWCs comfortably and without restriction.
They also accommodate various wearing positions and officer body types, while still enabling effective evidence capture.
MANUAL PROCESSES KEEP OFFICERS PREOCCUPIED
While in-field tagging can reduce the time officers would spend back in the station, it can potentially reduce alert patrol time and lead to
isn’t standardized or has to be manually added.
Instead, a truly efficient process is one that keeps officers on the field and engaged with the community while minimizing distractions. Tight technology integration that automatically associates metadata and other pertinent information with video can provide the necessary context to a clip while also making it more efficient to find and share that video later. This integration could be a BWC that can automatically associate capture location data and officer ID from an integrated radio, or an incident type and number automatically integrated from a computer-aided dispatch and records management system.
Automated controls over video footage tags and metadata can also ensure standardization for grouping, filtering, and searching for content when it’s needed later.
TECHNOLOGY WILL PROGRESS. WILL YOUR INVESTMENT VALUE?
BWCs are the next step toward more data-driven policing. But technology will
continue to evolve and with it, the tendency for complexity. Thus, devices, networks, and applications capable of working together seamlessly in an ecosystem will become even more important.
When considering a BWC purchase and how it will affect your security agency’s ability to grow, the ecosystem it is a part of is just as important as its wearability, operability, and intelligent management features. From this viewpoint, the BWC transforms from a singularly purposed device into a part of a true policing solution platform. Therefore, it becomes critical to weigh a BWC vendor’s total breadth of expertise delivering larger value to organizations.
KEEP IT SIMPLE FOR THOSE ON THE FRONT LINES
When implemented properly, body-worn cameras have the power to provide greater transparency and accountability. But like any technology, without the proper solution and supporting ecosystem, they can have the opposite effect, adding unneeded complexity and actually hindering security officers’ ability to do their jobs.
By taking into account basic, key considerations such as wearability, operability, management features, and total ecosystem return on investment, you can ensure body-worn cameras deliver their promised value of better transparency and accountability, while not hindering officers in their mission to keep our communities safe.
THE BODY-WORN CAMERA CHECKLIST
Use this checklist to help you evaluate some of the capabilities that can simplify the complexity for your officers and give them the best experience when using body-worn cameras.
FLEXIBLE WEARABILITY:
- Can the body-worn camera be mounted in a variety of different ways for what is most comfortable and appropriate for your security officers?
- Does the body-worn camera articulate and have the field of view to accommodate any of the variety of wearing positions desired?
STREAMLINED OPERABILITY:
- Can a radio emergency or other alert automatically trigger the body-worn camera to start recording?
MANAGEMENT EFFICIENCY:
- Can the body-worn camera video be automatically tagged with time, date,
location, and incident information.
- Can the body-worn camera offload video to the management system via Wi-Fi?
Source:
Motorola Solutions
WHITE PAPER | SIMPLIFYING THE OFFICER BODY CAMERA EXPERIENCE
JoJo Tran is Chief Executive Officer of Telepath Corporation. Tran joined Telepath in 1990 and became CEO in September 2010. Previously, he headed several business units at Telepath, including mission critical infrastructure, customer service, sales and mobile team. Mr. Tran’s vision is to be the industry’s premier sales, service and program management company. Customers and partners will see Telepath as an integral to their success. Telepath will anticipate their needs and deliver on every commitment. People will be proud to work at Telepath. Telepath will create opportunities to achieve the extraordinary and will reward their success.