Stockton Police To Arm Officers With Body Cameras
STOCKTON (CBS13) -- The Stockton Police Department is following the lead of scores of police departments across America, putting body cameras on their officers who patrol the streets.
"Anytime an officer is getting out of their vehicle to do police work they're gonna use this camera," said Lieutenant Grant Bedford.
Bedford described that once the lens cover is down, officers have both video and audio going.
The department bought 275 body cameras with money from a donation. Each Stockton police officer on the street has been instructed to turn on their body camera for any and all police work.
Using a video demonstration, Bedford said how it will clear up any confusion and remove doubt.
"You would be able to see if that officer took appropriate action for that weapon, whereas here you wouldn't be able to see that," said Bedford.
Critics fear officers who are out of line and violate the rights of citizens will not turn on their cameras or that police will go as far as to edit video that shows them in a bad light.
But Bedford says officers on the street will not be able to do that.
"They're not given permission to make copies or do any type of editing so they have no way of getting in there and editing the video," said Bedford.
The company that makes the body cameras has supplied cameras to more than four thousand law enforcement agencies in 17 countries.