2017 Press Release

Edison Mayor Thomas Lankey, who serves as Director of Public Safety, and Chief of Police Thomas Bryan announce that the Edison Police Department will deploy Body Worn Cameras in February 2017.

Edison has recently contracted with Taser International, Inc. and purchased 125 Body Worn Cameras (BWC). The purchase that was financed by capital funding will also include 60 In-Car Cameras that will synchronize with the Body Cameras, and 125 Conductive Electrical Devices known as Tasers. This equipment will be rolled out later in the year.

Body Worn Cameras (BWC) are considered to be a valuable asset intended to assist law enforcement by producing an audio-video recording of interactions with the public. BWC will provide valuable documentary evidence for our crime fighting mission, persuasive evidence to help defend against civil litigation and allegations of misconduct, and are generally intended to play an important role in maintaining the highest confidence that the public holds for the professionalism of the Edison Police Department and its members. Our policy will also respect areas of privacy and will restrict some recording in private residences, schools, places of worship, healthcare facilities and court.

Citizens will start seeing these Taser Brand, Axon Body 2 devices worn by officers on their outer garments’ chest area. The BWC will capture High Definition 30 frames per second video with a 143 Horizontal x 70 Vertical Degree Field of View. The BWC do not have enhanced audio/video capabilities that capture images or conversations beyond what the officer can see or hear (infrared night vision, thermal imaging, sound amplification).

Once recorded, video will be uploaded to a secure evidence management solution where the video will be retained according to state law and rules of evidence. The program will be governed by policy that is in compliance with Attorney General Directive 2015-1.

2021 update

After four successful years of deploying BWC, the Edison Police Department maintains over 57,000 video recordings. The video evidence has assisted with numerous investigations, provided valuable training resources, and has cleared officers and prevented many frivolous complaints.

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Program Expanded

Axon Fleet 2 Cameras

Supplementing our Body Worn Cameras, Patrol vehicles are equipped with two cameras each. The front-facing camera captures high resolution video from the ground-level perspective, and the rear-facing camera captures the interior of the vehicle to record of the safe transport of prisoners.

CONDUCTed ENERGY DEVICES (ced)