Benton Police recently upgraded their fleet to include dual body and car cameras. The eight person department is currently outfitted with five new camera systems costing around $5,500 dollars per set. Sergeant Stephen Sanderson said the purchases were made with funds from alcohol regulatory fees and will eventually equip every officer. He said the last camera upgrade was ten years ago.
“We’ve had in car cameras for years and they were just getting old and starting to cause problems.” Said Sanderson.
Upgraded systems offer body cameras that work in sync with dashboard cameras. As more citizens seek to use their own devices to record police, Sanderson said the additional footage helps “offer two sides to every story.”
The new technology automatically uploads footage when officers return to the station. Before footage was recorded to an SD card that had to be manually uploaded by a supervisor to a department hard drive.
Case reports have increased said Sanderson, but that is to be expected with the holiday season. He said most crime this time of year involves theft and burglary.
