The Brockport Police department is one of the latest area police departments to add body cameras for its officers. Chief Dan Varrenti says their 15 officers will soon be wearing the personal cameras while on duty.
He says the cameras will only be required to be activated in a situation where a physical or verbal confrontation is likely or is happening. Otherwise, Varrenti feels it would be an invasion of privacy for a lot of the people that officers respond to.
“If you have somebody that is overdosing from a particular drug or is contemplating suicide, I’m not going to have my officers go into that house, and automatically start recording and subsequently cause more harm than good.”
Varrenti says they are not implementing use of the cameras because of any problems, but he says with the availability of the technology, it must makes sense to take advantage of it.
“To me this is just making a good police department better , it’s making public trust, it’s enhancing public trust and there’s no good reason in my opinion not to do it”
The $7700 cost of the cameras is being paid for through federal funds, that were forfeited by people convicted of crimes.
