Body cameras increase police safety and accountability
Ashby Police Department equips officers with Axis body worn cameras for greater protection and reliable evidence collection. Having incident videos improves public trust and reduces the department’s operational and legal risks.
Ashby Police Department serves a small community
Ashby Police Department, like many small-town law enforcement agencies across the country, operates with limited staffing and budget. Despite its size, it faces the same growing expectations for greater accountability, evidence documentation, and officer safety as larger agencies.
To fulfill those expectations, Ashby Police Department needed to modernize department operations. So when the patrolman’s union asked Ashby Police Chief Derek Pepple to equip his officers with body worn cameras, he saw it as an opportunity to start that process. To finance the program, he directed his administrative staff to find a grant that would underwrite the investment.
“I recognized that body worn cameras would be great tools for officer safety and provide powerful forensic evidence in court,” states Chief Pepple. “Moreover, I felt that when officers reviewed that video alongside their field notes it would help them write up more accurate incident reports.”
Body worn solutions for real-world policing
Chief Pepple worked with BCM Controls, a security systems provider and Axis partner, to build a fully integrated Axis body worn camera system that aligned with top priorities:
- Reliability in demanding field conditions
- High-quality video and audio for evidentiary use
- Easy activation by officers in dynamic situations
- Scalability as needs and funding evolve.
“While price was certainly a factor, what really sold us on Axis cameras was the image quality of their body worn cameras, their ruggedness, and how simple they were to use,” notes Chief Pepple. “Axis loaned us a couple of body worn cameras and a server on a trial basis and the officers loved them.”
Automatic activation lowers risks, improves accountability
Typically, officers manually activate their body worn cameras while on patrol. But sometimes in a crisis, officers might not be able to manually activate their camera due to life safety concerns, and to prevent that, BCM integrated additional safety features that automatically trigger recording in high-tension situations.
“A key component of the body worn camera solution is the automated activation feature of the cameras,” says Steve Feinberg, President of BCM Controls. “It not only increases officer safety, it ensures that critical incidents are consistently captured even in high-stress situations. This technology also helps the department manage risk and strengthens evidentiary integrity.”
Each officer’s camera connects to a Yardarm Holster Sensor and, through Bluetooth, to the Whelen Siren System in their police cruiser. “The holster sensor ensures that an officer’s body worn camera starts recording automatically if an officer pulls out their firearm,” explains Feinberg. The body worn camera also automatically activates if the officer turns on their cruiser’s lightbar and siren or a nearby patrol car has its lights and siren on.
Having these multiple automated activation features built into the solution gives Chief Pepple the confidence that even in the heat of the moment, when an officer might be too distracted to activate their camera themselves, critical video evidence won’t be missed. “It’s great protection for our officers and ensures the community that we’re capturing a reliable record of events,” shares Chief Pepple.
Simplified operation, plenty of room to grow
BCM Control’s goal was to provide Ashby Police Department with enterprise functionality without operational complexity. The solution they delivered integrated the Axis body worn cameras with supporting infrastructure for easy video storage and management, with the potential for future expansion.
Video management requires minimal effort on the part of officers. They simply put their cameras in the docking station at the end of their shift which causes the video to automatically upload to the server. Meanwhile the docking station simultaneously recharges the camera, readying it for their next shift.
“The solution is so simple to operate that it didn’t require much of a learning curve for our officers,” states Chief Pepple. “And now that it’s in place, it frees them to spend more time on their daily policework.”
Always looking to the future, Chief Pepple turned to BCM for other ways the department might benefit from the new body worn camera solution.
“The reason we recommended that the department equip officers on patrol with the ruggedized AXIS W120 model was that this version also supports cellular connectivity,” shares Feinberg. “So when Ashby Police Department is ready to use this feature, officers will be able to livestream video to headquarters as they’re recording, especially if there’s an immediate need for remote eyes on the scene.”
Chief Pepple believes cellular connectivity could be a real asset to the department, helping dispatchers more fully assess field situations and quickly call for additional resources as needed.
Integrating street and in-house security solutions
Chief Pepple noted that when the department adopted body worn cameras, one of the reasons the officers were able to come up to speed with the solution so quickly was that they were already familiar with Axis technology. “When we moved the department into the town’s new public safety building, we installed Axis security cameras everywhere – the public areas, the interrogation room, even our two holding cells,” states Chief Pepple.
“We can see all the security cameras in the building from one computer screen. It’s just a matter of click and play. When we integrated the Axis body worn cameras into our AXIS Camera Station, we were able to access them from the same screen. Now we have a seamless, end-to-end security solution from street to in-house.”
Chief Pepple notes that in addition to spending less time training officers in how to use the technology, the end-to-end security solution minimizes operational and maintenance concerns that would otherwise burden the department if they were managing two disparate systems.
Driving better outcomes in the field and in court
Since deploying the system, Ashby Police Department has seen measurable improvements in officer interactions and case resolutions.
- De-escalation: Officers report more cooperative behavior once individuals are aware they are being recorded.
- Documentation: High-quality footage supports more accurate reporting and evidence collection.
- Case disposition efficiency: Video evidence has led to faster resolutions, with suspects more likely to plead early in the legal process.
“When cases go to court and we present body camera footage, many resolve immediately. It’s had a significant impact on our caseload,” reports Chief Pepple.
Using body cameras in unconventional ways
Without budget for traditional dashboard camera systems in their patrol cars, Ashby officers have found creative ways to use their body worn cameras to record footage during pursuits.
Chief Pepple tells of one instance where he spotted a pair of motorcycles racing through town. “I didn’t want to turn on the lightbar before I could get close enough to catch the plate numbers,” shares Chief Pepple. “So I turned on my body camera. And because it has a magnet, I was able to mount it on the mobile data terminal on the cruiser dashboard and position it to record everything out the front window.”
Chief Pepple pursued the bikers into the next town, turned on his cruiser lights, and pulled one of them over. The second biker sped off but was eventually pulled over and arrested by another officer.
Accountability is a two-way street
As eyewitnesses to events, body worn cameras help the department hold all parties accountable for their actions: perpetrators and officers alike. Chief Pepple regularly reviews footage from officers’ body worn cameras. “When a complaint against an officer comes across my desk, I automatically check the body cam footage to determine if it’s legitimate,” stresses Chief Pepple.
When you pull somebody over and tell them they’re being recorded on the body worn camera, you see their whole demeanor change. They generally become a lot more civil.
When writing up their incident reports, officers turn to their own camera footage to help them verify details. This also provides them with the opportunity to examine their own reactions to events and learn from those real-world experiences.
Chief Pepple notes that this dual accountability has led to performance and safety improvements across the department.
Body worn cameras: effective and affordable policing tools
Ashby Police Department’s thoughtful deployment of body worn cameras demonstrates how smaller agencies can achieve advanced-level policing even when their budgets are constrained. Chief Pepple is finding that the cameras are not only enhancing officer safety; they’re helping to improve public trust while reducing the department’s operational and legal risks.
“This approach can be a blueprint for other small law enforcement agencies seeking to modernize without the cost and complexity typically associated with large-scale solutions,” states Feinberg.
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