GAITHERSBURG, Md. — One Maryland police department will soon become the first in Montgomery County to buy and test body cameras.
The Gaithersburg Police Department will purchase five body cameras to be used in training scenarios that involve force.
The cameras will cost just more than $11,000, and the department hopes to begin the pilot program testing them next month.
The program will look to see how the cameras work and allow for better feedback on how they perform.
Officer Dan Lane says the cameras will give a teacher the option to show an officer exactly how they responded to a scenario and where improvement may be needed.
“It’s easier to see it, hands-on, … what you did or what you didn’t do,” Lane says.
Also, the program will help the department determine the limitations of the cameras.
“We’ll be able to look and see what we can’t see with these cameras,” Lane said.
The information, he says, will help the department decide which cameras work the best and what is the best way to use them.
The cameras come during a time where police actions have been questioned in some high-profile cases, including the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death of Eric Garner in New York City.
Before cameras can be deployed in the field, policies need to be developed on how the cameras will be used and how the recorded images will be handled.
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