With the technology I've seen... recording for an entire shift (the cameras will not be worn 24 hours) shouldn't be even be an issue if the departments spend the money and manage it correctly. These professional units (and those now being advanced with funding just because of this incident) aren't going to just pop in a AA battery and go. They are rechargable units that will last anywhere from 6 to 8 hours.
Remember, you're not talking about anything with a screen, lights, illumination (other than infra red on select units for night vision), etc. just dumping average video quality on internal memory. The only thing the battery is powering is the circuit board to record the video (and as I said, possibly LED's).
Here is one available to the general public...
http://www.topdawgelectronics.com/eagle-eye-personal-dvr-camera/
The unit linked above can record up to 16 hours of video on a 32GB SDCard (Which really doesn't matter considering the battery only lasts for 7) which should be more than enough for a single shift (or even half a shift as you could check in and swap it out).
Also with continued use... these units performance (like any other device) will degrade.
Of course either you give the officers a "panic" button, to shut it off while taking bathroom breaks, etc. and record all of the time... or you make it activate as mentioned above when the officer exits the vehicle (or when the dash cam is activated). There has to be a trigger to turn it on though, or there will be a lot of "forgetting" to turn it on.
For that matter, you could somehow tie it into a contact in the seat belt. When the belt is removed, the camera immediately is active. Personally, I think that whenever the door is opened, the dash cam should kick on by default. I mean still have it on when you activate the lights, but in the event you don't have the tree on... it would be a failsafe. Then again, I also think there should be a dash and rear dash cam (panoramic) so that you pick up a lot wider angle.
Or hell, just provide headsets and helmets... tie everything into the helmet as a self contained device... you could even add a flexible solar panel coating to it and integrate the battery into the helmet to extend the charge.
Remember, you're not talking about anything with a screen, lights, illumination (other than infra red on select units for night vision), etc. just dumping average video quality on internal memory. The only thing the battery is powering is the circuit board to record the video (and as I said, possibly LED's).
Here is one available to the general public...
http://www.topdawgelectronics.com/eagle-eye-personal-dvr-camera/
The unit linked above can record up to 16 hours of video on a 32GB SDCard (Which really doesn't matter considering the battery only lasts for 7) which should be more than enough for a single shift (or even half a shift as you could check in and swap it out).
Also with continued use... these units performance (like any other device) will degrade.
Of course either you give the officers a "panic" button, to shut it off while taking bathroom breaks, etc. and record all of the time... or you make it activate as mentioned above when the officer exits the vehicle (or when the dash cam is activated). There has to be a trigger to turn it on though, or there will be a lot of "forgetting" to turn it on.
For that matter, you could somehow tie it into a contact in the seat belt. When the belt is removed, the camera immediately is active. Personally, I think that whenever the door is opened, the dash cam should kick on by default. I mean still have it on when you activate the lights, but in the event you don't have the tree on... it would be a failsafe. Then again, I also think there should be a dash and rear dash cam (panoramic) so that you pick up a lot wider angle.
Or hell, just provide headsets and helmets... tie everything into the helmet as a self contained device... you could even add a flexible solar panel coating to it and integrate the battery into the helmet to extend the charge.
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