Police hope to have body cameras by summer

By Jenna Wilson

After months of planning, the St. Joseph Police Department is in the final testing phases before deploying body and dash cameras to officers.

The new technology the department will be using requires extensive testing that takes months, but officials say they are in the final phases of that process.

“Over the course of about the last six months, we’ve had multiple vendors, not only give us presentations, but allow us to do what we call T&E, which is test and evaluate several different types of body-worn cameras,” said Capt. Jeff Wilson. “Those have been narrowed down to a couple different options that we feel are applicable to what we need here at the department.”

Voters approved $950,000 in Capital Improvements Funding in August 2023, which went toward body and dashboard cameras for officers with the SJPD.

With upgraded security systems, in-car cameras and police body cameras will work seamlessly as a single system and be integrated to capture video of an incident from multiple angles.

“What will happen now with everything being integrated is it will be a lot better for getting a video presentation of what actually occurred when we make traffic stops,” Wilson added.

Wilson said being equipped with cameras will help create transparency between the public and officers, and will continue assisting them in spotting unlawful activity such as drivers riding around with unregistered tags.

“This equipment is not just to shore up cases, but it’s to be transparent and show the public exactly what did transpire during a certain event,” Wilson said. “But at the same time, it will be used to hold the public accountable. Any time you can develop a new tool to put into the field that will assist with detecting any type of criminal behavior, it’s a good thing.”