RAW VIDEO: Body cameras long time coming to PPD
- February 5, 2015
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / video
When Tommi Lyter began his law enforcement career in 1990, in-car video was the wave of the future.
What seemed foreign at first is now as much a part of daily police work as a badge or a service weapon.
Today the Pensacola Police Department took another step into the future with the use of body cameras on uniform patrol officers.
“I think that is the future of law enforcement,” Lyter says.
Mayor Ashton Hayward said the cameras will be a way to improve service that the department provides citizens.
“It’s important to me that we be transparent in everything we do as a city government, and I believe these cameras will reinforce public trust in our police department while safeguarding both our citizens and our police officers,” Hayward said.
Though the cameras began to be deployed today — 10 at a time to all members of the uniform patrol division until all 55 cameras are deployed — their use is something Police Chief Chip SImmons has been considering off and on over the last several years, Lyter says.
“Four or five years ago we started looking into them,” Lyter says. “We would field test them, but the technology wasn’t where we needed it to be to make it feasible.
“The key for us was the ability to transmit from the field. After the camera was full, the officer would have to come into the station and download video into server.
“This is the first technology where w can transmit wirelessly.”
Lyter says when the camera is full, officers will plug it into the in-car computer and transmit the video. The camera holds about eight hours of footage and the footage will be a public record.
[sidebar]
In neighboring Santa Rosa County, Sheriff Wendell Hall says he has too many unanswered questions about the use of the cameras to be comfortable using them for now.
[/sidebar]
“It transmits automatically” when it is plugged in, Lyter says. “(The officer) can’t manipulate it or stop the transmission.”
The cameras were purchased with $95,000 from the Law Enforcement Trust Fund, which includes money from seizures and forfeitures.
The cameras come from Vievu, a Seattle-based company that designs, develops, markets and sells body cameras to law enforcement and private individuals.
CES Team One Communications in Pensacola provided the software and network support through Motorola.
Lyter said that over time, the department field tested several kinds of cameras.
“There were some that you can wear on glasses withteh camera mounted to the glasses,” he says. “But if you didn’t normally wear glasses, they just used clear lenses, which was awkward. And sometimes, with the more physical things that we have to do, they would fall off.
“And when you watched the video, if there was a lot of running (or motion), you’d almost get vertigo watching the video.”
The Vievu cameras are worn in the center of the officer’s chest, almost level with the top of your pockets. Officers tested them last fall for four to six weeks.
The cameras will be deployed 10 at a time to day shift officers over the next several months, Lyter says.
“We need to see how much video we have, make sure server works, make sure the State Attorney’s Office computers system can use it, decide how we will handle public records requests for the video,” Lyter says.
Sgt. Bruce Martin, video system administrator, will be the point person handling the videos once they are uploaded to the server, Lyter says.
Lyter says the department is looking buying up to 90-95 of the cameras, “until everyone on patrol in uniform has one.”
The second wave of cameras is likely to go to officers at Cordova Mall, motorcycle officers, the community policing unit, Lyter says. That will take through the end of summer to fully roll out the cameras, Lyter says.
“Four or five years ago we started looking into them,” Lyter says. “We would field test them, but the technology wasn’t where we needed it to be to make it feasible.
“The key for us was the ability to transmit from the field. After the camera was full, the officer would have to come into the station and download video into server.
“This is the first technology where w can transmit wirelessly.”
Lyter says when the camera is full, officers will plug it into the in-car computer and transmit the video. The camera holds about eight hours of footage and the footage will be a public record.
[sidebar]
In neighboring Santa Rosa County, Sheriff Wendell Hall says he has too many unanswered questions about the use of the cameras to be comfortable using them for now.
[/sidebar]
“It transmits automatically” when it is plugged in, Lyter says. “(The officer) can’t manipulate it or stop the transmission.”
The cameras were purchased with $95,000 from the Law Enforcement Trust Fund, which includes money from seizures and forfeitures.
The cameras come from Vievu, a Seattle-based company that designs, develops, markets and sells body cameras to law enforcement and private individuals.
CES Team One Communications in Pensacola provided the software and network support through Motorola.
Lyter said that over time, the department field tested several kinds of cameras.
“There were some that you can wear on glasses withteh camera mounted to the glasses,” he says. “But if you didn’t normally wear glasses, they just used clear lenses, which was awkward. And sometimes, with the more physical things that we have to do, they would fall off.
“And when you watched the video, if there was a lot of running (or motion), you’d almost get vertigo watching the video.”
The Vievu cameras are worn in the center of the officer’s chest, almost level with the top of your pockets. Officers tested them last fall for four to six weeks.
The cameras will be deployed 10 at a time to day shift officers over the next several months, Lyter says.
“We need to see how much video we have, make sure server works, make sure the State Attorney’s Office computers system can use it, decide how we will handle public records requests for the video,” Lyter says.
Sgt. Bruce Martin, video system administrator, will be the point person handling the videos once they are uploaded to the server, Lyter says.
Lyter says the department is looking buying up to 90-95 of the cameras, “until everyone on patrol in uniform has one.”
The second wave of cameras is likely to go to officers at Cordova Mall, motorcycle officers, the community policing unit, Lyter says. That will take through the end of summer to fully roll out the cameras, Lyter says.
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