Cranford Cops Equipped With Body-Worn Cameras

CRANFORD, NJ - The Cranford Police Department has equipped a limited number of officers with body-worn cameras, according to authorities.

This initiative is part of a county-wide effort by the Union County Prosecutor’s Office aimed at equipping all Union County police agencies with body-worn cameras. The public will see the new cameras being worn by police officers working in the Patrol Division.

Body-worn cameras have been effective in memorializing important information during critical incidents. Cranford Police officers are required to activate the body cameras when conducting investigative and enforcement actions such as making an arrest, issuing a summons, searches or stopping a person on the street in the course of an investigation.

During the course of each workday, officers also "tag" their videos electronically, filing them into different categories, and this can be accomplished using a variety of devices, from smart phones to laptops. Once each officer returns to police headquarters following a shift, he or she removes their camera and places it in a docking station; at that point the footage is uploaded to cloud storage or local servers while the device also recharges automatically.

All officers equipped with body-worn cameras have received training on the devices. The body-worn cameras supplement the existing in-car digital video systems which currently record motor vehicle traffic stops.

The Prosecutor's Office distributed approximately $181,000 of its forfeiture funds to six municipal police departments in 2018 to cover significant shares of their first-year startup costs for their body-worn cameras, ancillary equipment, and file storage. All of those departments are currently in various active stages of body-worn camera deployment, a process anticipated to be completed in 2019.

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