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Positive feedback on body cams

T-R PHOTO BY MIKE BURVEE Marshalltown Police Lt. Ronald Ohrt is one of 35 officers who have been outfitted with body cameras. The department is hoping to have 50 total cameras within this year including parking officials and detectives.

Law enforcement agencies across the country have been dipping into their funds and equipping their officers with body cameras. The Marshalltown Police Department has followed suit, buying their first batch and going live late last year.

A federal grant of about $18,000 provided the MPD much of the funding needed to purchase the new recording devices. What began as only having 16 officers equipped in November steadily has grown to 35 officers.

Each camera costs about $800, the first batch using most grant money for the project. That’s when the community stepped in, pooling together another $10,000 thus far.

“It’s become an expectation for police have these devices,” said Marshalltown Police Chief Michael Tupper. “Without the money donated, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Another 15 cameras are expected to be ordered within the calendar year. The only officers who have them are on uniform patrol. The goal from the beginning, however, was to outfit every active member in the department with the cameras including reserve officers, detectives and parking officials.

The MPD began the process over two years ago, primarily in the research phase. The next step was to purchase a small amount and begin testing. The Marshalltown City Council approved of them and the funding in July of last year.

The transition has been relatively smooth, other than more tasks assigned and learning new software. No significant issues have come to the attention of Tupper.

During the research phase ,the department discovered an issue of file space could occur primarily due to the size of the videos and system software. Each camera contains 32 Gb of storage, equaling 16 hours of HD video, per Digital Ally, the company providing them. To tackle that, larger server space was purchased for long-term storage.

“One thing we have noticed is they are spending more time cataloguing or documenting and less time out on the streets,” Tupper said. “The positives these devices provide will far outweigh any negative consequences that might arise in the future.”

While the cameras have yet to play a critical role in a situation, the video will be at officials’ disposal when needed.

“Having access to the audio and video will allow us to be a more transparent agency,” Tupper said. “We can be held more accountable for what we do.”

Initial feedback after the project began has only been positive from the community and those within the department, the chief added.

“We didn’t do this to keep up with other agencies,” he said. “We realize how important these tools are and they give us the ability to provide the best quality service.”

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