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04/23/2019 02:49 PMWho doesn’t like to be reimbursed for something bought and paid for? On April 2, the Connecticut Bond Commission approved funds that include $56,639 in reimbursement for body cameras and other equipment purchased between February 2017 and June 2018 by the Old Saybrook Police Department (OSPD). The reimbursement covers 100 percent of the town’s expenditures on the items submitted.
Old Saybrook was one of seven local Connecticut police departments that received the reimbursements. The purchase of the body cameras and peripheral equipment was not driven by the state’s reimbursement program, according to Police Chief Michael A. Spera, but was part of a planned upgrade to the department’s other recording systems.
The body cameras were purchased “when we were in the process of flipping over the fleet” of police vehicles, he explained. SUVs equipped with new technology replaced the older sedans and emerged on the streets of Old Saybrook last May.
The sedans were equipped with dashboard cameras as well as cameras in the backseat prisoner areas. Much of this equipment was transferred to the new vehicles. The microphones the officers had worn previously to record audio of interactions with citizens, however, were replaced by body cameras, which were then integrated into the overall system.
Police officers are now issued body cameras when they report for duty. When the officer returns to the station, he or she places the camera in a docking system, which simultaneously recharges the camera and downloads its data.
The three cameras are perpetually on over the course of the officer’s shift; once the officer switches on the police vehicle’s flashing lights, the system begins to record the interaction, starting the video record one minute earlier, which increases the chances of capturing the issue or incident that caught the officer’s attention.
Once the video data is downloaded, the interaction can be viewed on a split screen in order to simultaneously see the footage recorded by dash and body cams.
Spera didn’t intend initially to apply for reimbursement, as he found the requirements in the original law, Public Act 15-4, which was passed in 2016, to be too onerous, he said, but a 2017 update, Public Act 17-225, extended deadlines for applications and expanded eligible equipment. It also permitted “police departments to implement their own body-worn recording equipment policy—with the caveat that it will be based upon the guidelines maintained by the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and the Police Officer Standards and Training Council.”
According to Spera, half of the reimbursement funds will be deposited in the town’s general fund; the other half will be placed in an off-budget account that “will be used to support the in-vehicle camera and body camera program,” he said by email. “This includes maintenance, support, repair, and replacement.”