UTC police officers get body cameras

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – UTC police officers will now be wearing body cameras.

The cameras are worn visibly and, smile, because if you see one on an officer, you’re likely being recorded.

“When they’re dispatched to a call or they come up on the scene of something where they see that their assistance is needed, then they’ll activate the camera or if their sent on a specific call, not necessarily dispatched to a call, but they have a certain responsibility like if they’re engaging in the community and somebody wants to file a complaint then the officer is gonna go ahead and activate the camera just to speak with the the individual to capture that, that testimony to capture that statement shall I say,” UTC University Police Chief Robert Ratchford.

About two weeks ago, the police department got around 20 AXON Body 2 cameras.

That’s one for each sworn officer.

“In less than a two week period we’ve already uploaded approximately 650 evidentiary items, and that’s quite a bit of footage,” Chief Ratchford said.

Chief Ratchford said that they recently got the funding to get the cameras.

He said start up costs, which includes cameras, were around $25,000.

There’s also reoccurring costs that will be around $20,000 annually.

“A lot of the costs, as far as, even the initial start up costs is for storage and maintenance, as far as a service contract with them as well. The units are not that expensive, but then you have storage requirements,” Chief Ratchford said.

The cameras are just another tool for officers to help document situations they encounter.

“This gives an independent, unbiased observer affect, third party kind of view. It captures both the behavior of the public and the officers so if there’s any kind of issue that may come to light then we can go back and review that to see if there was some type of an issue,” Chief Ratchford said.

Ratchford said officers do have polices and guidelines to follow when using the cameras.

Officers were also trained before they got them.