SJPD To Begin Wearing Body Cams Later This Year; Release Details On Drone Use
SAN JOSE (KCBS)— Police officers in San Jose will begin wearing body cameras later this year after pilot programs to wear the equipment have started and stopped several times over the last few years.
San Jose's police department says it will begin field testing cameras on about a dozen officers in September with full implementation a year later. After years of flirtation with implementing the devices, they are now becoming the norm for police in the Bay Area and across the country.
"Every officer from the chief of police on down will have a body-worn camera whenever they're out in the field— that includes our civilian mental-health liaison— so pretty much anybody who's in the field doing any kind of contact will have a body-worn camera," said Lt. Dan Fink with the San Rafael Police Department.
In a memo to the City Council, the police department also addressed its controversial drone surveillance technology, saying it won't be rolled out until 2017, while federal regulators work out a use policy.
According to the Mercury News, police have responded to public outcry over the drone by promising not to archive drone footage and prohibiting its use for general surveillance.