LAW AND ORDER: MUNCIE STYLE
CHRIS SIMMONS + JOE RUSHKA
Technology Does Not Lie
The Muncie Police Department will be deploying body cameras for most of its officers over the next few months. The department agreed on a contract with Taser International out of Arizona that will include 90 cameras along with charging stations and cloud storage for the cameras.
“This is obviously something that will be a way of standard operation for police departments as we move forward with all the hype in recent months. The Muncie Redevelopment Commission felt like we could assist in speeding up the process for our department,” said Todd Donati, Muncie Redevelopment Commission Director.
According to Muncie Police Chief Steve Stewart, the cameras are being used to record all interactions between the police and the public. This will hopefully help the police department make sure they are acting accordingly when they have to interact with members of the Muncie community. The department will be reviewing the tapes from the cameras constantly and hopes to continue to learn and grow as a department that highly values its community interactions.
The cameras are also intended to act as a line of defense for the police officers. “The camera won’t lie and it gives our officers protection against false accusations. That’s foremost and it provides videos that will go to trial and the cameras will provide a video of what that officer saw at the scene for the jury.”
Three different styles of cameras will be available to the officers; one that fits on the chest, one that clips on to sunglasses and the one that can attach to the epilate on the shoulder of the officer. Stewart believes the chest camera will be most utilized while the sunglasses one will be least used due to inconvenience of always having the glasses on while on duty.
The officers are also happy to wear these cameras while they are working, Chief Stewart said one officer told him that he didn’t want to go to work without one anymore.
Even though Chief Stewart feels that the perception of his department across the Muncie community is mainly positive, he still wants to keep improving that perception and wants the police to be a fixture in the community as people that are always there to help citizens.
University Police 101: Understanding
Ball State University's police department constantly works on improving its relationship with Ball State students. The department takes great pride in having a strong bond between its officers and the public, a key ingredient when it comes to the community helping the police do their job.
The UPD has multiple ways of staying in touch with the community and forming bonds. The UPD strengthens its relationship with the BSU community through programs, events, day-to-day interactions and even a class is taught involving the police.
These all work together to help students understand the police officers and vice versa.
The class taught at BSU is titled “Police and the Press” and it is specifically taught to teach news students how to properly interact with the police. It is also used for things like introducing students to daily police duties (involving ride-alongs) and their brand of jargon, along with putting students through some basic officer training. This is an immersive class that UPD says is beneficial to both the students and the police officers.
Lunch with a Cop is a new program that began in the fall of 2014 and it offers students a unique experience with a police officer. The program offers students a chance to sit down and have a meal with a uniformed officer. Sergeant John Foster has been a member of the UPD since 1994 and says he is a fan of this program. He enjoys sitting down and debunking the myth that all police officers want to do is arrest people. He wants people to know that most officers are truly friendly people who are not out to get anyone.
Sgt. Foster believes this program is helping put names and faces together, which will help in good times or bad. If a situation is developing he believes it will go smoother if he already had some interaction with the student(s) involved. He also doesn’t like to be cooped up in his patrol car all day.
With programs and classes like these and others like them it is easy to see that the UPD at BSU is engaged daily with its community and it constantly wants to improve its perception with the students on campus.
Axon Body Camera
Photo Courtesy of
Taser International
