Finance Committee - 07/07/2021 Page 7
Alderman Laws
They don’t? | just thought they'd be a wonderful happy coincidence if they did because then you know — well
integrated. | wish | could read my own handwriting. Do officers have the ability to manually turn it off?
Deputy Rourke
Yes they do. They do. On the bracelet they can turn it off.
Alderman Laws
Does it record the previous two minutes up to that?
Deputy Rourke
If was still on it is recording yes. But if they shut it off, it is off. And again, a lot of these incidents will be
spelled out in the policy of when they have to wear the camera and when they are not, if they are out talking to
or having a coffee or something like that obviously. But if they are going to calls in certain instances it is going
to be on.
Alderman Laws
Certainly and | imagine in the heat of the moment they are not really thinking about shutting off the camera. So
| would support this absolutely, | think body cameras are a great idea I’ve seen how good they have done, the
gocd that they have done nationwide. And | imagine if the price has gone up significantly since June if we
don’t act on this now it is just going to keep going higher. So | think we should support this.
Deputy Rourke
Just to give you an idea of last June | got a quote it was just for the body worn cameras not for the vehicles or
the interview room or booking, just for the body worn cameras 179 cameras was $1.1 and this June it was $1.5
so you can see the inflation.
Mayor Donchess
Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Chief my question is, | know this is going to be worn underneath the blouse of the shirt,
but it is also going to be on the exterior of the bullet proof vest correct. In other words no impact of receiving
fire could fragmate the camera close to the body that would injure the officer, correct
Deputy Rourke
So it would be the vest, well it depends because we have officers that wear the auto carrier vest. So if it were
me, | would wear the vest under the shirt so the camera would be between the vest and my shirt. So if was hit,
that’s a good question it would probably be damaged if not destroyed. But the other carrier vest too it will be
on the inside material.
Alderman O’Brien
Follow up Mr. Mayor. My point is that | don’t care so much about the camera | care about the officer and would
hate to have the device compromise the vest. And if | may follow up. One more question. This is from my
history being on the Fire Department, love GPS but GPS is linear, level field. If an officer was operating in a
