BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Bernards Township voted to spend roughly $24,000 towards equipping all of their police officers with body-worn cameras(BWC), as mandated by Gov. Phil Murphy.
The Bernards Township Committee passed a resolution last Tuesday night appropriating $4.5 million for various capital improvements including authorizing the purchase of police equipment including, but not limited to, patrol car equipment; radar units and body-worn cameras.
"It is our intention to equip each uniformed officers (26 total) with their own BWC with a few number of spares. We will have a docking station at [headquarters] for officers to charge the units and transfer data from BWC to a cloud-based storage system," said Police Chief Michael Shimsky.
This initiative to implement cameras in Basking Ridge comes after Murphy signed legislation in November 2020 requiring all New Jersey law enforcement to wear body cameras, citing the need for increased transparency and in the interest of improving interactions with the public. The law goes into effect on June 1. Read More: Gov. Murphy Signs Body Camera Mandates For All NJ Police Into Law
Additionally, New Jersey also announced about $58 million would be distributed to the state's law enforcement agencies in order to cover/offset purchases of BWC required by the mandate.
"Our department has applied for funds from the state, however in the meantime we have utilized existing operating accounts to kick off the program. We are hopeful to receive state funds to cover or offset the acquisition of (29) BWC's, which will equip all of our uniformed officers," said Shimskey.
In total, the hardware, licensing, installation, set-up, warranty and cloud storage for 5 years for the BWCs will be about $125,000 (over 5-years), said Shimsky.
The initial cost includes a $9,500 for hardware and a quarterly cost of $5,800 for a 5-year contract. Price includes support, warranty, hardware refresh after 3 years and unlimited cloud storage.
"The police department and the township embrace the ability to utilize this technology in order to protect the public and our officers. We currently operate with vehicle-mounted cameras where the officers are able to capture most interactions with the public," said Shimsky. "The new BWC technology will serve to enhance our ability to capture all interactions to increase accountability, public perception as well as to demonstrate the high standard of behavior our officers engage in day in and out."
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