Eagle Grove officers now have body cameras

If you’re old enough to remember the old Candid Camera TV show with host Alan Funt, you’ll recognize where I got the idea for the title of this story. On that show, you never knew when your interaction with either someone or something would put you in front of millions of viewers of that popular show. Now, the next time you are around an officer of the Eagle Grove Police Department (EGPD) you’ll notice them wearing their new body cameras .

Just like all of the equipment they carry, it’s another tool in their belt to keep both them and members of the public safe.

Body cameras for police are actually specialized video recorders designed to document what frontline officers see in the line of duty. Ideally, they make everyone safer and that goes for the police and civilians alike. At the very least, they offer some degree of clarity when police interactions with the public go bad. The goal of using the cameras is to provide information about the quality of police-public interactions, and especially the relatively small, but critical, minority that involve officers use of force.

Approximately one-third of the 18,000 police departments in the United States are now using the body cameras. In addition, five states have enacted laws requiring at least some officers to use bodyworn cameras.

For example, South Carolina requires (contingent on state funding) that every police department implement a body camera program. In both Nevada and California, their laws require certain members of their state highway patrol to wear them.

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