ELGIN, Ill. (WLS) -- Some police departments around the country are outfitting officers with small cameras worn on their bodies while out on patrol.
Though there is not yet a great body of research, more police departments are moving toward body cameras with the notion that more often than not they tend to support an officer's version of events: from the relatively rare shots fired to the far more frequent mundane traffic stop.
"We've found that most of the time the officer is not doing anything wrong, and there may be a misconception of what actually occurred," Elgin Police Commander Dan O'Shea said.
For the better part of the past year, the Elgin Police Department has been running scenarios and testing a variety of body cameras.
The questions are quite basic. How durable are the cameras? What's the quality of their video and audio? Battery life? Cost? Ease of use? Where do you wear them? On your head? Vest? Middle of your chest?
"But now you're someone that's more concerning to me. I'm going to stand with my weapon back here, and I'm going to talk to you like this," Commander O'Shea said. And the camera's still rolling. "Right."
An officer's got to be engaged in the event, not in positioning a camera. Beyond point of view, there is policy to be made. When do you turn on the camera? Who has access to the video? How long is it kept?
"They're wearing these devices, but should they have to tell me it's on? And if they tell me it's on, do I have the right to say, 'I'd like you to turn that off while we talk?'" Ed Yohnka, American Civil Liberties Union, said.
A host of questions are raised, which is why the move to body cams is not a speedy one. Still, O'Shea believes it's coming, as the dash cams did before it.
"Every officer, I think most departments nationwide are going to end up with body cameras. For us I think we'll be there in the future with every officer having a body camera," O'Shea said.