WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — Wausau police are a step closer to wearing body cameras on patrol. Captain Ben Bliven will be asking the city’s Finance Committee later today for authorization to use a specific vendor after evaluating several units from various manufacturers. The purpose of the Finance agenda item is to request a sole-source purchase through a specific company as a result of some specific components that they offer with their service that isn’t offered with other vendors.”
Captain Ben Bliven will be asking the Finance Committee for permission to use a specific vendor based on the features and proven performance of a specific unit. “We first started looking and considering buying body cameras, probably a little more than a year ago, so I’ve been looking at some different vendors, demo’ d some body cameras, and we’re at the point where I think we’ve determined what best suits our needs.”
Bliven says the cameras will store audio and video inside the unit, but they will not be capable of any live transmission back to the dispatch center. “It’s a body camera that’s clipped kind of to the chest area of the officer, and all of the video is stored there, and at the end of the shift, the officers can dock the body camera and it will upload all of the video from that camera.”
The cameras could arrive as early as February. Bliven says, “For now, everybody that’s in our Patrol Division would be outfitted with a body camera, as well as our school resource officers and community resource officers.”
Police body cameras record audio and video, which the officers can upload to their archives at the end of each shift. The video is often useful for evidence gathering and for documenting the actions of both officers and the subjects they deal with.
