The most technologically advanced body worn camera for law enforcement officers debuted in San Diego at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention.
The Safariland Group’s 7TS series duty holster with Camera Auto-activation System is the first of its kind, automatically activating a body worn camera when a firearm is drawn from the holster. It includes a 30 second pre-roll, capturing the moments leading up to the drawing of the firearm.
“The number one problem in law enforcement body worn cameras today, is we’ve seen critical incidents where the camera doesn’t come on, including here in San Diego,” said Sean McCarthy of The Safariland Group. “Our holster insures the camera will be rolling when the gun is drawn.”
Here’s how it works.
When a law enforcement officer’s gun is drawn from the holster, it activates a body worn camera mounted on the officer’s chest. There’s no need to turn the camera on. The camera automatically turns on and has a pre-roll of 30 seconds. The video is stored in a cloud and the officer doesn’t have access to edit or alter it.
“It’s invaluable to law enforcement and the public. Everybody wants a record of gun drawn situations, we don’t know what happened if we don’t have it on video," McCarthy said.
Scott Carnahan, Vice President of Equipment for The Safariland Group believes this technology can add clarity to tense, difficult situations.
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“The benefit is that if something arises very quickly and (the officers) don’t have time to turn the camera on, the camera buffers back 30 seconds, so it will see what happened and what caused me to draw the gun in the first place," Carnahan said.
