Edison Police to Start Wearing Body Cameras in March

EDISON, NJ - If you're pulled over in Edison Township this spring, expect the entire interaction to be caught on camera: Starting the first week of March, body cameras will be worn by all uniformed Edison Township police officers on patrol.

Mayor Thomas Lankey and Police Chief Thomas Bryan announced the news Monday. While Edison is using the same federal grant money as other law enforcement agencies to pay for the cameras, Edison is unique because the Township negotiated a two-year contract with Arizona-based Taser International Inc: Taser will provide the department not only with 125 body-worn cameras, but also 60 state-of-the-art dashboard cameras for Edison patrol cars and 125 conductive-electrical devices (Tasers).

The money to buy the cameras came from a $62,500 federal grant distributed through the N.J. Attorney General’s Office. The dashboard cams and Tasers were paid for by Edison investing $365,000 of the Township's capital improvement funds to cover the first two years of its agreement with Taser.

“I am very proud our Police Department is taking this progressive approach to utilize body-worn cameras and digital recording equipment for each officer and patrol car. These devices are now essential to modern law enforcement,” Mayor Lankey said.

“Body-worn and dashboard cameras have become a vital crime fighting tool. They enhance our evidence-gathering ability in criminal and accident investigations and prosecutions,” Chief Bryan said. “The benefits to our police department and to the people we serve are enormous.”

For the past ten years, Edison patrol cars have been equipped with other brands of dashboard cameras. However, the new Taser-brand dashboard cameras will be compatible with the same digital data storage capabilities as officers’ body-worn cameras, Bryan said.

Edison is one of the first towns in Middlesex County to employ the body cameras and Edison is by far the largest municipal police department in the area to use body camera technology.

East Brunswick, New Brunswick, South Brunswick and Woodbridge currently do not use body cameras. As Patch has reported, North Brunswick Township received a federal grant for cameras and plans to equip officers with them this summer.

Currently, some Rutgers campus police officers wear body cameras and Highland Park's very small police force uses body cameras.

Police departments in more than 250 towns across New Jersey use body cameras, putting New Jersey at the forefront of the nation when it comes to police using body cameras. Linden was one of the first departments in the state to start using body cameras, and a camera worn by an officer there captured an interaction he had with Ahmad Rahimi, suspected of planting bombs in Chelsea over the summer.

Related coverage:

North Brunswick Police Get Body Cameras