Police have long used video cameras in their patrol cars. But now police in Owasso, Oklahoma are taking it a step further with wearable video cameras. The cameras are attached to an officers chest and automatically begin recording both video and audio whenever the officer flips open a cover over the camera’s lens.
The idea is to capture video evidence of everything that happens before, during and after a call…as around 90% of activity during a call happens outside of a car camera’s view. And to help the police department avoid potential lawsuits, where in Owasso, about one in every 1,700 arrests results in a civil lawsuit.
The cameras themselves cost around $900 each and are made by Vievu. They simply clip on and are ready to go, recording up to 4 hours of footage at 640×480 to an internal memory card. Although these cameras are marketed toward law enforcement agencies, they are available to the public too.
Here’s a link showing a dozen different videos of the camera being used.