The Christian County Sheriff’s Office has completed the deployment of body worn cameras on its patrol deputies.
Sheriff Tyler DeArmond in a news release says, “The goals of our body worn camera program include enhancing services and providing transparency with respect to interactions between our deputies and the community.”
The department settled on purchasing the Visual Labs smartphone-based solution, which leverages Android smartphones as an all-in-one device, as opposed to using vendor-specific hardware.
Officials say the body-worn cameras used by local deputies are actually fully-functioning Android smartphones, the Kyocera DuraForce PRO 2, a waterproof, dustproof “rugged” device.
In addition to adding the functionality of a body-worn camera, the Visual Labs application allows the device to function as a digital camera, an audio recorder and a personnel locator, all while retaining the functionality of the smartphone itself.
The Visual Labs smartphone body-worn camera solution includes several deputy-safety features such as the ability to livestream video and audio directly from the scene of an incident. This enables the sheriff’s office command staff to obtain real-time situational awareness and make tactical decisions even when they are not present at the scene.