ATLANTA, Jan. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Utility, Inc. officially announced today that three more police departments throughout the United States have recently selected BodyWorn™ as their officer-worn camera system. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office in Texas, the Long Beach Police Department in California, and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in Georgia will all deploy BodyWorn during 2016. BodyWorn™ is the only automatic, policy-based recording and video management software currently available to police departments.
"This announcement is a market confirmation of our team's success in providing police departments with the best possible solution to meet the accountability, transparency and privacy needs of the 21st century," saidRobert McKeeman, CEO of Utility. "Our policy-based recording and video management system eliminates the need for police officers to have to remember to manually start video recording. It also provides accountability that recording will continue until the end of a situation, based upon the department's video recording policy. Police officers can focus on serving the public and staying safe, and not get distracted by also having to be a videographer. Citizen and police officer privacy is protected. This is the first of many major announcements Utility has in store for 2016."
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office in Bexar County, Texas, plans to deploy 300 BodyWorn systems in the second quarter of 2016. In addition to equipping its officers with BodyWorn cameras, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office will also be using Utility's Rocket IoT™ in-vehicle camera system, which seamlessly connects to the Enterprise Software Back-End, AvailWeb. This partnership creates the first-ever "smart" patrol car by fully integrating video captured from dashboard and BodyWorn cameras through the Rocket IoT's communication and video triggering platform—thereby unifying video feeds from multiple in-car and BodyWorn cameras into one incident report.
Long Beach, California, is the seventh largest city in the State of California and the Long Beach Police Department is the second largest municipal police agency in Los Angeles County. The Department will initially deploy 100 BodyWorn cameras and Rocket™ vehicle communication systems in Q1 2016 as part of the first phase in its deployment of body camera technology.
The MARTA Police Department, which provides safe and secure systems for the City of Atlanta's major transportation infrastructure, has deployed BodyWorn cameras and expects to have 200 in use before the close of 2016. They will be used by the Department's Narcotics K-9 Specialized Patrol Unit, which guards the city's transit cars and stations.
"Our focus is to never ask a police officer to do something manually that technology could do for them automatically," said McKeeman. "Our BodyWorn video camera can automatically implement a City's video recording policy. Recording rule combinations such as the police car door being opened while the light bar is flashing, or an Officer entering a GeoFence zone, can be defined to automatically start video recording. If a Police Chief changes a recording policy, all body-worn cameras can be wirelessly updated immediately with the new recording rules. This avoids confusion and the need for extensive officer retraining classes and delays in implementing the new recording policy. Our smart camera is integrated into the uniform, which provides a stable and secure platform for recording video while an officer is running or is involved in a struggle. Our Generation 2 smart BodyWorn camera with real-time communications integrated into the uniform provides many officer-safety and operational benefits over simple Generation 1, manually-operated, clip-on cameras with no real-time communications."
Utility's Generation 2 BodyWorn video camera captures high-definition video and provides real-time communications for the officer. "Officer Down" emergency alerts with the officer's exact location is immediately sent to central dispatch. "Be on the Lookout" (BOLO), Silver and Amber Alerts can be immediately transmitted from central dispatch to all officers. Video is immediately uploaded as it is being recorded to secure Amazon cloud storage instead of requiring officers to travel back to the police station at the end of the shift to manually upload video.
Smart Redaction™ video redaction is a standard capability included as part Utility's AVaiLWeb™ Video Management system. Smart Redaction automatically identifies and blurs faces, body parts with identifiable tattoos, and other objects in a video to protect citizen and police officer privacy. This unique capability allows a police department to quickly and reliably redact video to respond to Press and Open Records requests. Manual labor cost and delay to redact videos is eliminated, which allows Law Enforcement agencies to maximize accountability and transparency.
All BodyWorn™ video cameras and Rocket IoT™ in-car video recording systems are tightly integrated with Utility's AvailWeb™ enterprise mapping, tracking, and video evidence software management system.
For more information about Generation 2 BodyWorn video cameras, visit Bodyworn.com .
About Utility
Utility is a venture-capital funded software developer headquartered in Decatur, Georgia in metropolitan Atlanta. The company provides real-time Situational Awareness and Police Video Management Software as a service and vehicle wireless communications hardware solutions for Police, Fire, EMS, Electric and Gas Utility, and Public Transit customers across the US. Utility owns US patents 6,831,566; 7,768,548; and 8,781,475; and has numerous patents pending with the US Patent Office, the Canadian Patent Office, and the European Union Patent Office.
