Body Cams Coming to the City of Madison Police Officers

The city is now purchasing 30 body cams at a total cost of $10,470.00.

File Photo

(Madison, Ind.) - Madison Police Chief John Wallace presented two new revisions to the Standard Operating Procedures today to the Board of Public Works.

One of the procedures would be the wearing of body cams by all the officers in the department.

As of now, a third of the officers are wearing body cams that are personally owned, with the city providing body cams it would take the liability off of the officer owing their own cameras and would allow the city to apply rules and regulations to the cameras.

The cameras that Wallace would like to invest in will change when officers go from high to low lighting, and also have "great audio and video features" so it will be easier to see what is happening. These cameras are the same cameras that are used by the county officers.

When presented to the Police Merit Board this standard operating procedure of the wearing body cameras was approved.

“This is a very important tool, one of the most important used in law enforcement in many different cases,” said Wallace. 

The city is now purchasing 30 body cams at a total cost of $10,470.00.

“I think that this is a really good procedure and I’m happy to see that you are implementing something that will be consistent throughout the course of the department,” said Mayor Courtney.

Also, with this purchase of the city-owned cameras, it will eliminate the use of personal cameras.

The department will hold video evidence from the camera for six months and then discard of the videos. If the evidence is needed, then the department is regulated by the state to have it for two years.

“This is a great form of investment for not only our officers but also those they interact with,” said Mayor Courtney.

The second standard operation procedure Chief Wallace presented to the board was the department's uniform policy.

To present ranks, the buttons on officers’ shirt are either gold or silver these uniforms would be considered a class A rank uniforms which can be worn at any time by the officer, but are mainly used for special events, and details.

Class B uniforms are the uniforms worn with solid black buttons.

With this revision, it will allow the officers to wear either Class A or B uniforms while on duty but implements the wearing the class A uniforms to special events.

Both of these matters were passed by the board of public works 3-0.