South Bloomfield, Ohio – Having body cameras instituted within South Bloomfield for over the last year, officers will now have an extremely beneficial upgrade for community picture and video evidence gathering. South Bloomfield
Police started using AXON body camera units for a little over a year and they have been extremely beneficial. Body cameras have captured crimes in progress, impaired or intoxicated drivers and assisted documentation in crimes. The
addition of these body cameras has assisted in arrests to show how and what occurred rather than just a written report, and allows prosecutors and judges to see offenders’ demeanors and actions during the time of the arrest. They have also
allowed victims and witnesses to make statements that can be viewed to show the impact of the crimes that have occurred and document their observations.
As an additional feature to these body cameras, the agencies vendor, AXON, has now introduced AXON CITIZEN to the available tools to assist in evidence capturing, chain of custody evidence management and increase in security.
AXON Citizen, allows officers in the field to send a submission request to a smart phone user that will allow a victim or witness to securely submit photos or videos directly into the departments EVIDENCE.COM system that maintains
their officers’ picture and body cam video evidence. “This will allow officers to combine photos they take from the AXON app, body video recorded on their cameras and now victim or witness pictures and video and will allow them
all to be wrapped into one case that can be shared directly and immediately with prosecutors or other agencies” said Chief McCoy. “This is a huge game changer in being able to securely maintain, collect and preserve evidence received
from the community that will assist in investigations and arrests”.
No personal data is collected other than videos and pictures that are submitted by victims and witnesses that want to share evidence they have. In addition, soon, AXON CITIZEN will also allow a public submission for mass evidence
gathering. The department will be able to publicize a temporary website address generated for a specific incident in which the community can go to and submit pictures and video of evidence that will be linked directly to that call or
crime. “In situations such as a missing child, or a rash of break ins, or major incident, we can generate a link in AXON Citizen and through that link we can obtain picture and video evidence from the community that would be securely
maintained and captured directly into our evidence.com system.”
Chief McCoy said, “We have greatly enjoyed being partnered with AXON and we made a great decision in allowing them to build and maintain our body camera system as they continue to grow and expand their services geared toward
helping law enforcement and communities work together to help prevent and maintain invaluable evidence resources”
