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Mid-State Police Agency Sends Back Body Cams

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Officials with the Greenbrier Police Department have decided to no longer use body cameras.

With 15 officers total, the Greenbrier Police Department is one of the smaller agencies in the mid state but they're leading the way in new initiatives including body cameras for officers.

"With everything that's going on throughout the United States, officer involved shootings, it really sheds a lot more light as far as what happens outside the vision of the in-car camera," Chief K.D. Smith said. 

Body cameras are one of the first pieces of evidence prosecutors look to in court. "We try to get as many arrests as we can on video," Smith explained. 

A couple of months ago he ordered a dozen body cameras for his own officers. However, "within a week and a half we started having problems."

The company sent new parts, but that was little help. "Within a couple of months 10 of the 12 body cameras malfunctioned. We were back to ground zero," said Smith. 

Its a hard lesson in what could soon become the norm in law agencies across the state, technology can be unreliable.

 "Let's see how the legislation and everything is going to pan out before we jump back in," said Smith. 

A bill is under discussion that would make body cameras mandatory for all Tennessee law enforcement agencies, exempting those who cannot secure grants, private donations or federal funding.

Greenbrier forked over nearly $4,400 for a dozen of them, money the department was fully refunded.

"In the future I still would like to have body cameras for the officers for their protection as well as for the protection of the citizens," Smith said.