MANSON, Iowa, February 3rd, 2020 ─ The Manson Police Department – IA, currently has a total of 7 officers using WOLFCOM body cameras and Chief Gerald Frick said they no longer have many of the issues they used to have before using body cameras.
According to the Chief, the decision to purchase body cameras was “for officer safety and safety of the citizens. It was just preventive maintenance. We don’t have people complaining, we don’t have people fighting, we don’t have any of the issues we had before the body cameras. Now, if somebody comes in and files a complaint against the officer, I just pull the video ─ and we have a policy that says ‘you will record’ ─, and I pull the video, I look at it with the person, and then seeing whether I see it or I don’t see it, and 90% of the time I don’t see what they are complaining about.”
Chief Frick first heard of WOLFCOM at a neighboring department he used to work at. “I was working with a police department in Oelwein, Iowa and they use your vision cameras, and so that’s why I called WOLFCOM,” said the Chief. Gerald also claims size and cost played a big role when choosing to go with the WOLFCOM Vision Body Cameras. “I have officers who don’t like the big, bulky recorders in front of their uniform. And price [was also an important factor]. You guys were a lot cheaper than everybody else was for the body cameras.” Chief Frick said he has referred WOLFCOM to 3 other agencies.
These body cameras have proven to be a good investment, over time. “We have used them in court cases. We had vehicle searches, home searched. We had to testify to the officers’ reports and we just played the videos for the jury and let them watch it,” said the Chief.
Gerald said the local citizens played a big role when it came to funding the purchase of these devices. “The in-car camera was achieved through the Iowa government’s traffic safety grant. They gave us a certain amount of money to purchase. The body cameras were purchased through donations. It was actually very nice of some of the citizens to come in and give 20 bucks here, 30 bucks there, to purchase the cameras to everybody.”