Area Police Meet With Body
Camera Vendors
By David Culver
As more police departments move
ahead with plans to equip officers with body cameras, there are questions about
how the video gathered is stored and secured. Northern Virginia Bureau reporter
David Culver reports. (Published Tuesday, Jul 14, 2015)
Law enforcement from across the
D.C. area are meeting with body camera vendors Tuesday and Wednesday to explore
implementing them in local jurisdictions.
Police are examining new body
camera technologies and looking into the complexities of storing and securing
all the data.
There’s been a growing push for
more transparency by police. Law enforcement from Fairfax County and Prince
William County are now moving forward with their own body camera projects.
“This is the next big thing for
law enforcement," said Capt. Robert Blakely, who is helping Fairfax County
Police lead the effort while acknowledging it’s complicated. “It’s how the
departments deploy the cameras and what they do with the data," he added.
Police departments across have
the option of using several different types of body camera, but storing the
hours and hours of video data is the challenge.
Steve Petruzzo’s GreenTec-USA
is among the many companies that thinks it may have a solution. It's pitching
storage capabilities that hold the original video quality that's untouched by
any officer.
“Digital evidence has to be
recorded in a way and handled in a way such that it’s immutable, you can’t be
challenged in court that the data’s been deleted or modified or edited or
altered," Petruzzo said.
Green Tec-USA says its business
is booming after only two years in the body camera market.
“Need for video and need for
evidence is probably going to be around for a long time," said Richard
Detore, Green Tec CEO. "We’re going to need to be able to manage it and
deal with it and more importantly protect it.”
Detore said cyberhacks are
something they feel confident they can thwart.
Prince William County Police is
among the agencies funded to move ahead. The department’s IT manager, Lt. Javid
Elahi, is looking at several vendors to start testing.
Northern Virginia Police Body
Camera Policies:
• Fairfax City: Funded; initial stages of testing
• Prince William County: Funded; meeting with vendors
• Fairfax County: Not yet funded; meeting with vendors
• Fredericksburg: Began using last year (2014)
• ArlingtonCounty: Not immediately pursuing body cams
• Alexandria: Not immediately pursuing body cams
• Loudoun County: No response
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