Body cameras have already proved their worth to different police forces at major events, parties, and demonstrations.

Wearing a body camera has a number of major advantages:

• They provide protection for police officers in case of unfounded complaints.
• They offer protection to civilians in the event of improper police behaviour.
• They have a dissuasive effect and deter criminals.
• You can use the video clips for training purposes.

The small, handy camera stores the recorded images in internal memory.

Afterwards, you can view or process the images from the cloud or your server.

Enforcement of coronavirus measures

Numerous police forces and coronavirus teams are now also wearing body cameras to enforce the new measures.

Controlling crowds and monitoring closed shops and catering businesses is never easy.

Does an incident result in judicial proceedings? With recordings, your burden of proof is a lot higher and you can always go back to review the moment itself.

Debate on police brutality

The debate for and against police brutality has never been so relevant. Videos of interventions that have gotten out of hand are showing up on social media.

We see that police officers’ actions have been questioned both at home and abroad.

In this case, body cams are becoming increasingly more important because a video recording always shows an objective version of the facts.

Which is why the use of body cams by police forces is rising rapidly. More than 20 police forces already buy their body cams from Vandeputte.

Police officers will soon be working everywhere with a small camera on their uniform.

Important criteria when buying a body cam

Are you looking for a body cam for your police service? Then take these criteria into account.

Recording time and battery

One of the most important features of a body cam is the recording time

Body cams can record video for up to 12 hours depending on the model and resolution.

Video resolution

The higher the resolution, the sharper the image. A higher resolution allows you to better recognise important factors and zoom in when processing the recorded images.

However, a video recorded with the highest resolution uses up more storage space and reduces recording time.

Data, user, and video management

Proper data and video management are critical in deciding on your body camera. Connecting individual body cams separately to your computer is not very efficient.

Docking stations are often used where police officers connect their cameras and the recordings are automatically uploaded to the servers.

What about management software? Each brand often has its own video software for viewing, processing, and deleting images. Some use an API that you can integrate with your control room (Milestone, Genetec, Cisco, etc.)

Our choice for a police bodycam

We recommend the Zepcam T2+.

A small but robust body camera for police forces with different options:

• Recording time:
  • 11.5 hours at 840x480p - 30 FPS
  • 10 hours at 1280x720p - 30 FPS
  • 9 hours at 1920x1080p - 30 FPS
• Pre-event recording: extra video clip that starts shortly before the recording button is pressed.
• GPS: independent of a smartphone
• Zepcam Manager: manage users, manage your videos, or connect to a 3rd-party video management system.
• Different adapters available