WASHINGTON — Starting Monday, more than two dozen members of Arlington County law enforcement will be outfitted with body-worn cameras as part of a months-long pilot project.
Twenty-five members of the Arlington County Police Department and the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office will be equipped with cameras for testing and evaluation, the department announced Friday.
The department will test out camera systems manufactured by three different vendors in three separate phases, running through December. The effort will help police officials come up with a final policy for using body cams and determine how much a permanent program would cost.
Last week, Arlington County Chief of Police M. Jay Farr issued a preliminary policy for the use of police body cams.
Officers outfitted with the equipment will be required to sign on and activate the system before the beginning of their shifts and will have to keep the cam “in a constant state of operational readiness throughout their shift,” according to the policy.
Officers will be required to inform supervisors immediately of any malfunctions and will have to upload and properly tag videos at the end of their shifts.
The preliminary policy expires Dec. 31.
Arlington joins several counties in the D.C. area to implement or experiment with body camera technology.
In Maryland, the Montgomery County Police Department has already outfitted some 800 officers with body cams, and Prince George’s County police plan to begin phasing them in this fall.
Under a December 2015 law, all D.C. police officers are equipped with body cameras.
