Here at the police department in St. Johns, they strive on safety as well as transparency. And new body cameras allowing for safety and a little bit of extra information.
"The body camera will always be kind of in the center of everything, so it'll hopefully provide, as best as it can, the view that the officer is seeing at the time of the event," said Chief Deputy Andy Tobias.
On November 2nd, the St. Johns police department put their new body cameras into use for the very first time.
"It's another level of transparency that is becoming more of a demand from the community," said Tobias.
After a community meeting led to a high priority set on body cameras for police, the department received a grant to purchase the cameras. Tobias says that these devices will play a major role in multiple areas.
"When we talk about being accountable to the community that we serve and the citizens that we serve, we have recognized the need for a body camera is there, the desire from the community we serve is there," said Tobias.
This new system not only helps the departments speed of process, but it also helps in a situation when an officer can't be on the scene.
The officer can issue a report number to your phone,
"We now have a way to quickly send them a link into our digital evidence room to have them send that to us," said Tobias.
You then take a picture of all of the evidence available, and then send photos that are directly worked into the departments system.
The cameras come as an addition to the pre-existing dash cams that the department has in their vehicles, but will now allow for safer traffic stops and more evidence when needed.
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