MANCHESTER, NH – Manchester Police Department recently purchased new body cameras. The Board of Aldermen received a presentation on how those new body cameras work at their meeting on Tuesday.
According to representatives from the Pilieum Corporation providing the presentation, they stated these body cameras, made by the Utility company, were the only “second generation” body camera available on the market today.
Built into an app on a smart computing device, the Pilieum representatives said that this body camera was less likely to fall off during fights compared to older models, and is easier for officers to use in the field through a Bluetooth-enabled armband.
The cameras also automatically turn on whenever an officer wearing the item pulls for their firearm or starts running and it will send immediate information to dispatchers whenever an officer is in a prone position. The system associated with the camera can also provide officers in the field with be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) alerts.
When officers return to the driver’s seat of their vehicles, data is automatically uploaded to a device located in the vehicle’s trunk, and that trunk-located device can be used as a cellular phone network booster and a wifi network in emergencies.
Data from that trunk device is automatically backed-up to a cloud when the vehicle returns to a specified police station.
Otherwise, all data from the body camera is streamed live to dispatch as long as the officer is within 500 to 700 feet of their vehicle, but the camera will continue to record even beyond that range.
Pilieum company representatives indicated that range limitation may be overcome in the future by the addition of SIM cards into the cameras.
Manchester Police Department Chief Carlo Capano indicated that officers had begun training with the new body cameras on Monday, with the devices going live in the field within the next 2 to 3 weeks.
The Board of Aldermen authorized $1.14 million in FY’ 20 Capital Improvement Funding to equip all officers with the cameras at their Aug. 6 meeting.