All Herndon Police Now Have Body Cameras: Police Chief

HERNDON, VA — The Herndon Police Department has fully rolled out a new body camera project this summer after a couple of years of examining the project, and all patrol officers should have them by now, Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard told Patch in a recent interview.

"We've spent the last couple years, a year and a half, working on a body camera project," DeBoard said. "We just deployed those operationally throughout the department [in July], so we're actually looking forward to getting those out there and making sure that the program is sound and working well. That's a big project to carry out for the rest of the year."

DeBoard said the change is business as usual for Herndon police and won't affect them much in terms of how they do their jobs, but it may be a bit of a change for citizens who will be recorded when they make calls for service or are arrested. The major changes on the police side will be in the data storage, and in crafting policy that strikes a balance between protecting the privacy of citizens and providing an accurate record of a police encounter.

All patrol officers have them, and DeBoard said she just got one herself.

"Everyone who is working patrol should have one one," she said. "We have a couple spares now, but for the most part everyone has them. We're really kind of fully deployed and administering the program. We're dealing with the storage, the technical side. Of course if we find we need to adjust the policy for any reason, we'll make changes as we go."

The Herndon Police Department has been examining the issue for the last couple years, and it's been a slow and deliberate process, DeBoard said.

"I certainly wanted to take my time with it and not just jump and grab the first thing available," she said. "I wanted to see how [other departments] handle privacy issues. I'm glad we waited to research the issues."

The cameras aren't that expensive, she noted, but the cost of data storage can be "astronomical." Some video police can get rid of right away, while the law requires them to hold on to other types of video for much longer.

Imaeg via Town of Herndon