NEW BERLIN, Wis. — The New Berlin Police Department announced its officers will be equipped with body-worn cameras beginning Monday.
The cameras are Axon 3 body-worn cameras (BWC). The department says they function as a camera and DVR combination to collect video and audio evidence.
The department said in a statement on Facebook Friday that the use of these cameras will help increase transparency.
"The New Berlin Police Department believes that transparency and accountability are key components in maintaining community trust and legitimacy," the department said in part. "Our goals and objectives in deploying body worn cameras are the accurate documentation of interactions between our officers and members of the public."
The department said this will also allow supervisors, trainers and administrator to conduct reviews of officer-citizen interactions.
“Now that the implementation phase is upon us, I would like to thank our elected officials and the community for their ongoing support," Chief Hingiss said. "I also want to acknowledge all of our personnel for embracing body worn cameras and to recognize our continued commitment to professionalism. A special thank you goes to all our personnel who either led this project or were involved in the planning, testing, training, and/or policy development phases. This was a true team effort and I am proud or everyone."
