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Fairfield Police Test Out Body Cameras On Officers

FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- After a couple of years of quietly participating in talks and research on body cameras for officers, the Fairfield Police Department has begun testing demo units for its officers. 

Fairfield Deputy Chief Christopher Lyddy holds up the Digital-Ally body camera Fairfield police have just finished testing.

Fairfield Deputy Chief Christopher Lyddy holds up the Digital-Ally body camera Fairfield police have just finished testing.

Photo Credit: Salvatore Trifilio

“I think [national events] stepped up the timeline for us,” said Deputy Police Chief Christopher Lyddy. “But video in law enforcement is nothing new.”

The Fairfield Police Department began its testing in the wake of protests and violence that erupted after a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo. 

In the past three weeks, the Fairfield Police Department began and finished a trial of a small and sleek body camera made by Digital-Ally. The all-black unit is about 1-inch wide and attaches to a battery pack that easily fits in an officer's front pocket.

The officer must manually turn on the camera, Lyddy said, at which point a vibration alerts the officer that the camera is active and a recording has begun.

But the results have been mixed. 

“This product has spent two weeks in the field, and I haven’t gotten one good video,” Lyddy said of the $900 device. He described footage as either grainy or upside down.

In the coming weeks, the Fairfield Police Department will test two to three more devices. One device that was on hand Friday is a camera/microphone combination that hooks right into an officer's radio.

However, with the Federal Communication Commission due to change the radio frequency used by law enforcement in the next three to five years, Lyddy said the department would probably not go with the $800 device. The department will most likely be replacing its compatible radios in that time frame.

Lyddy says the department began looking into body cameras a few years ago along with the Westport Police Department, which is also looking into the advanced technology.

Although many police departments across the country have condemned the use of body cameras, Fairfield police are welcoming the new technology.

“We look at it, and many officers look at it as protecting against false allegations,” Lyddy said. “Not to mention the evidentiary value is exceptional.”

Daigle Law Group, a firm that works with law enforcement on such issues, has also mostly favored the implementation of body cameras in police work.

“Good police work will benefit from such recordings and improper police work will be discovered before it becomes a community-wide issue,” lawyer Eric Daigle wrote in a white-page report distributed to Fairfield Police on Friday, Dec. 19.

On Tuesday, the Fairfield Police Department looks at the effectiveness of the body camera technology. Read about it on the Daily Voice. 

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