CLAYTON (KMOX) — The St. Louis County Police department is starting to roll out more than 1,000 cameras. 700 are wearable, 350 are going in patrol vehicles. A small circular camera on the officer's chest is connected to an Android device they wear inside their breast pocket. Data is constantly transmitted to the Cloud for storage via a router in their patrol car.
"We're not having to take our camera, whether it's a car camera or body worn camera, and put it in a docking station or park a car for 15 minutes waiting for it to download data," said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar.
A Bluetooth device that looks like a wristwatch turns it on and off, they're required to be on during traffic stops and other enforcement action -- but Belmar says they also turn on automatically in several instances. "When it hears a gunshot, it's going to turn on. When it senses an officer is running, it's going to turn on," Belmar told KMOX. "When it understands an officer is down, it'll give that officer a warning saying hey, we're going to make an alert if you don't get up, right?"There are some instances where a camera isn't needed -- Belmar gave the example of a child who's choking. The car's camera may be on -- the vehicle cams turn on when an officer activates lights and sirens. But at the scene the body camera wouldn't be needed -- this also goes for people on the street simply talking to officers, if they're not engaged in an "enforcement action" the cameras aren't supposed to be on. The batteries on the Android devices last 13 hours and are assigned by serial number to each officer, they're responsible to ensure they're charged.The department, as part of the 5 year, $5 million contract paid for by Prop P money, will get all new cameras in two-and-a-half years -- halfway through the contract.