Although police body cameras have been around for almost a decade, they are still considered unknown territory by the vast majority of the population. This article includes interesting and relevant police body camera facts you probably didn’t know (but should)!

Fact 1: Lens Angle is Important

Most Law enforcement agencies prefer body cameras lenses of up to 120°. Anything above that will start to distort the image, causing the so-called fisheye effect.

Fact 2: People Behave When They are on Camera

In 2014, the first-ever study conducted about the effects of police body cameras found that citizen complaints dropped 88% among officers equipped with cameras. Body cameras successfully de-escalate situations because the public knows they are being recorded.

The use of body cameras as a law enforcement tool has become widely accepted and encouraged throughout the United States, but it still raises many questions among civilians. One of the most commonly asked questions is “are police body cameras always on?”. And the answer to that varies according to each department’s policies.

There’s a lot more involved in that question than simply turning the body camera on and off. When officers record entire shifts uninterruptedly, they end up with large video files. These files require storage solutions with much more capacity, making this practice more expensive. Seeing as most police departments are underfunded, that route is far less popular than simply turning the cameras on when officers have interactions with the public. Besides, most officers spend a large amount of their shifts in their vehicles, which are, usually, equipped with In-car cameras.

Law enforcement agencies all around the world have been benefiting from the use of body cameras for years. These devices help cities save thousands of dollars on litigations and settling cases out of court, yearly. Officers who wear body cameras face fewer investigations and complaints from the public. That facilitates their jobs, making it less stressful while possibly saving careers as they can now easily disprove false accusations. Devices such as these can be extremely useful for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) as they often face similar issues to those that law enforcement officers do when it comes to dealing with citizens.

Police body cameras have been around for a few years now and, since then, it’s helped an incredible number of officers get justice. A recent study shows that body cameras are, indeed, extremely effective when it comes to judgment of intent. In other words: people who watch body camera footage are less likely to blame the wearer. But the reason isn’t what you’d expect.

Much has been said about the use of police body cameras only benefiting cops but those claims have, once again, been proved wrong. Officer Richard Pinheiro Jr., from the Baltimore P. D., was caught red-handed. The police officer was caught planting drugs by his own bodycam in order to fabricate evidence for a drug arrest. It all started when Pinheiro was called in for a drug-related arrest and began to search around for the dealer’s stash. The officer, supposedly, found a bag with drugs inside of a can in an empty lot. But he forgot he was being recorded by his own body camera and that it would tell the undoctored story.

The use of police body cameras is widely accepted and encouraged by most of the population in the United States. But a recent event might just hurt that acceptance rate. Users of the Vievu LE-5 seem to be at risk after one unit burst into flames in New York City. All Staten Island officers assigned to body cameras of the same model were told to turn in their devices, as the department fears for the safety of their members. That means 2,990 officers aren’t wearing body-worn cameras anymore. That measure delays NYPD’s plans of equipping all 23,000 officers with such devices.

Law enforcement agencies have adopted the use of body cameras a long time ago. But, lately, a global awakening has been happening. Professionals from many other lines of work started to realize the importance of these devices. A vast list of other occupations require close attention and revision of facts for quality or security purposes. That’s why body camera manufacturers have, lately, been getting inquiries from non-law enforcement professionals. Unfortunately, many of these companies haven’t yet realized the opportunities this new market presents and still produce body cameras exclusively for law enforcement.

Artificial Intelligence is a highly-advanced technology that generates a lot of buzz around anything it touches. And it couldn’t be any different with police body cameras. Some of the major police camera manufacturers have started investing artificial intelligence for body cameras in an attempt to facilitate police work. But some people have a different perspective on the matter.