{"id":180333,"date":"2024-06-14T03:40:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=180333"},"modified":"2024-06-14T21:05:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T02:05:25","slug":"vwpd-now-using-dashboard-cameras-and-body-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/06\/14\/vwpd-now-using-dashboard-cameras-and-body-cameras\/","title":{"rendered":"VWPD using dash and body cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Van Wert Police Department is making full use of its newest equipment \u2013 body cameras and dashboard cams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers and the department\u2019s cruisers were outfitted with the new equipment during the spring and both the body and dashboard cams have been in use since early-to-mid April. A grant of $84,468 from the Ohio-Body Worn Camera Grant Program and money already set aside in the budget made the purchase possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dashboard cameras are automatically activated if a cruiser\u2019s overhead lights are turned on, but manual activation is required for the body-worn cameras, which are about the size of a deck of playing cards and are worn in the mid-chest area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sgt. Adam Wehage is shown with one of the Van Wert Police Department’s new body cameras, which are worn in the mid-chest area. Scott Truxell\/VW independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert Police Sgt. Adam Wehage, who researched the cameras and did a presentation at PELC (Police Executive Leadership College) in Dublin, Ohio, said the cameras are of benefit to the police department and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt helps officers when writing reports to get more accurate details of it (an incident),\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of statistics that say they actually help de-escalate a situation when people know they\u2019re being recorded, and there\u2019s greater transparency. It\u2019s come in handy \u2013 I\u2019ve been able to recount things better that somebody said during a report, been able to go in and review our stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt helps with public trust,\u201d Van Wert Police Chief Doug Weigle said. \u201cIt also helps if someone makes a bunch of false claims\u2026it makes a lot of sense that most of my department wanted this to help protect them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\u2019re not Chicago, we\u2019re not Ferguson, our officers are pretty even-keel out there and we don\u2019t have the tense moments that some of those bigger cities do \u2013 we\u2019re usually a step down from other departments on use of force because we try to talk people out of stuff and I think the cameras will help show that,” the chief added. \u201cEven if an officer is having a bad day, they know they\u2019re being recorded now so they\u2019ll take that extra step so overall, I think it\u2019s going to be a very good tool from our department,\u201d Weigle added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Weigle said policy calls for the Axon brand body cameras to be turned on with nearly every interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s an actual, official issue we\u2019re going to turn those on in almost every situation,\u201d Weigle stated. \u201cThere are parts of the policy that state when to turn them off \u2013 if we\u2019re talking to a victim that doesn\u2019t want to be recorded, or for the privacy of the individual, they can be turned off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weigle added there are several other exceptions, including officer safety, strategy discussions, privileged conversations between a suspect and an attorney, and to protect the amonymity of a witness or informant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before starting a shift, each officer is responsible for making sure the cameras are in full working order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery day when an officer comes in and they go out in their cruisers, we have to do an equipment check for everything,\u201d Wehage explained. \u201cWe have to make sure the camera systems are functioning properly \u2013 those are simple recordings that only last one second just to make sure that everything is working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wehage noted the dashboard cams have automated license plate recognition, which makes it quick and easy to find out if a car has been stolen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first or second day we had the system activated we recovered a stolen car with it,\u201d he said. \u201cAs you\u2019re driving down the road or in a parking lot it will capture images of vehicles and license plates and runs it through the NCIC system and if it comes back as a stolen vehicle it gives us the opportunity to investigate further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Van Wert Police Department currently has a 13 page policy manual that outlines the use of both the dashboard cameras and body cameras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The Van Wert Police Department is making full use of its newest equipment \u2013 body cameras and dashboard cams. Officers and the department\u2019s cruisers were outfitted with the new equipment during the spring and both the body and dashboard cams have been in use since early-to-mid April. A grant of $84,468 from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 01:25:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180333"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180394,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180333\/revisions\/180394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}