St. Joseph Police Officers receiving body cameras
ST. JOSEPH, Mich – St. Joseph Police Officers will be joining other Berrien County police departments when they implement their body camera program on December 27th.
Most residents and public safety leaders are praising the departments new purchase.
“I think it’s a good idea for all parties involved, police and the public as well, if there’s an altercation it could prove who’s wrong and who’s right,” St. Joseph resident Paul Rogers said.
Shortly after receiving approval from the St. Joseph City Commission, St. Joseph police purchased 26 body cameras.
“It’s gonna give a front-end view of exactly what’s occurring, anybody can come in fill a form out and watch the video if they think something wrong happened,” St. Joseph Interim Public Safety Director Steve Neubecker said.
St. Joseph Police received a grant from the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Association to cover 25% of the approximately $43,000 cost of the body cameras.
The St. Joseph police department purchased a server to store all footage obtained through the body cameras.
Neubecker says this program will shoe benefits and lead to improved policing in the future.
“We’re getting into the technology era and body cameras are the start of it, who knows what’s going to happen 10 years from now there will be new systems and new designs but the more evidence we have or the more camera views we have to show the public what happened the better off we are,” Neubecker said.