FCPD getting new in-car, body cameras for officers

Officers with the Forrest City Police Department will soon be equipped with newer technology that will benefit both the agency and the public. The department was recently awarded a $75,000 grant through the Arkansas Department of Public Safety to purchase new body and in-car cameras for police officers. The cameras are projected to cost $95,483.84, with the city responsible for paying the remaining balance of $20,483,84 toward the purchase. The grant will cover 35 bodyworn cameras and 25 in-car camera systems. FCPD Chief Ronald Broussard said the new cameras should be installed by the end of this month. “We’re getting the best of technology, and we’re excited to finally be catching up with everyone else,” he said. “The cameras we currently have are not really what the police department needs,” Broussard continued. “These new cameras will upload everything to the cloud where video can be stored for longer periods of time. These videos will be saved in the cloud where they can’t be deleted or altered, which will give us the gift of greater transparency.” Broussard said he is excited about the new cameras for police cars. “We will finally have the cars equipped with cameras. You’ll be able to see things from the car’s vantage point and the officer’s vantage point. When the officer activates his blue lights, the camera automatically comes on and serves as added evidence of what happened,” he said. The grant will fund cameras for about 90 percent of the department’s patrol fleet. “For the most part, all of the patrol vehicles, street crimes and those guys will have in-car cameras,” said Broussard. Broussard explained that the cameras will not be activated until an officer turns on the blue lights in his patrol unit and that the in-car cameras will record both inside and outside the vehicle. “There will be one pointed inside the car and one pointed outside the car, so you can also see the officer’s involvement with a person inside their car. These cameras have perfect night vision to where we can really see what happened,” said Broussard. “The cameras can’t run constantly, but when an officer is in his vehicle and turns on the blue lights, the body camera and the in-car cameras will come on simultaneously.” The body cameras will also be tailored to each officer. “Right now, they’re sharing them,” said Broussard. “This grant will allow each officer to have their own individual body camera that will be his property to keep up with.” He said the new cameras are a step in the right direction for the agency. “We’re finally getting to a place where we’re operating the way a police department should operate with the equipment that we need,” said Broussard. “You can’t do this job when the criminals are getting smarter, our job is getting harder and we’re using the same antiquated equipment. We have to get with the times. We have been using what we have because some video is better than no video.” He said the department is actually getting more body cameras than it currently has police officers, saying that if a camera gets broken, they will have a backup on hand. Broussard said officers will still have the option of turning the body cameras on and off when responding to incidents during which blue lights may not be activated ahead of time. He also noted that the department’s policy requires officers to use the body cameras and if one should manually turn the camera off, they will be disciplined. “If an officer turns that camera off, he will be immediately terminated,” said Broussard. “There is no reason you should turn it off until the traffic stop is done. We won’t tolerate that if you turn the camera off. We already have that in our policy now. If we have a bad apple, we want to get that apple out of the barrel because it can spoil that whole bunch. I don’t want bad police officers mistreating citizens, but we’re not afraid to go hands-on if that’s what the job requires.” Broussard also said that since the video footage is stored in the cloud, the officer won’t be responsible for storing it. “When our officers drive by the PD or park in our parking lot, their video footage will automatically be uploaded to the cloud. It gives complete transparency. To me, it’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “I’m excited about this. I love transparency. If we mess up, we’re going to take our medicine. If we do something well, I don’t want us to be criticized and branded for doing what officers have to do because sometimes our response is a direct correlation to your actions,” he said. “These cameras will give the officers more protection and the community more confidence.” Broussard said the grant is for a five-year period and provides for the replacement of cameras that are broken or stop working.

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