The Franklin Police Department has been testing body cameras for the first time. They're looking at three different brands to see which best suits the city's needs.
Five officers volunteered for three 30-day test runs on models from Axon, Panasonic and Motorola. The department has been looking for the best fit for their budget without sacrificing battery life or video quality.
"This is a pilot program at this point," said Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner. "One on each patrol shift. One in traffic and one in our FLEX unit."
The Axon model has a battery life of 14 hours and data is stored in the cloud.
"The work is fairly strenuous. It's manual. It's going up and down, [and] in and out of a car," Faulkner said. "Possibly running after someone, pushing cars, helping people, lifting people - it's a very physical job. We want to see how each on reacts to that."
Faulkner said the goal of the program is to eventually equip each officer with a camera.
"I think everyone who is a law enforcement professional realizes [this] really is the tool of the present and the future." she said.
Faulkner said it's not clear what the full body camera program will cost. That's the point of the test program. They also planned to take feedback on the functionality from the five officers who will test each model.
"With anything that we do - with any program that we implement - we're all about accountability to the citizens of Franklin," Faulkner said. "I'm also aware that false allegations are made against officers, and this is the ability for them to tell their story about what happened when they answered that call."
Five officers volunteered for three 30 day test runs on models from Axon, Panasonic and Motorola. The department is looking for the best fit for their budget without sacrificing battery life or video quality.
"This is a pilot program at this point." said Franklin Police Chief Deborah Faulkner. "One on each patrol shift, one in traffic and one in our flex unit."
The Axon model has a battery life of 14 hours and data is stored in the Cloud.
"The work is fairly strenuous, it's manual. It's going up and down, in and out of a car." Faulkner said. "Possibly running after someone, pushing cars, helping people, lifting people, it's a very physical job. So, we want to see how each on reacts to that."
Faulkner said the goal of the program is to equip each officer with a camera.
"I think everyone who is a law enforcement professional realizes [this] really is the tool of the present and the future." she said.
Faulkner said it's not clear what the full body camera program will cost, that's the point of this test program. They also will be taking feedback from the five officers who will test each model.
"With anything that we do, with any program that we implement, we're all about accountability to the citizens of Franklin," Faulkner said. "I'm also aware that false allegations are made against officers and this is the ability for them to tell their story about what happened when they answered that call.
