More police orders for body cameras reported

SEATTLE, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- More police departments in the United States have ordered body cameras for their officers and subscribed to a data evidence storage service.

The orders were placed with Taser International by the police in Cleveland, Ohio, Tampa, Fla., and Scottsdale, Ariz., and follows allegations and street demonstrations nationwide over alleged police brutality and unjustified shooting.

Taser International said 1,500 of its Axon Flex and body cameras were ordered by the Cleveland Police Department, while law enforcement in Tampa ordered 60 Axon Flex cameras. Scottsdale ordered 40 Flex and body cameras.

All three departments also purchased five-year subscriptions to EVIDENCE.com to store and manage the camera evidence.

"We are excited to have two more major cities, as well as our hometown of Scottsdale, deploy our AXON systems to protect their communities," said Rick Smith, founder and chief executive officer of TASER International. "We are grateful at the opportunity to partner with these leading agencies in moving the public safety community forward."

Axon cameras, powered by a pocket-sized battery, record wide-angle, full-color, point-of-view video images of an officer's interaction with people while on duty and automatically uploads the video via a docking station to EVIDENCE.com for storage and later review.

The cameras can be attached to sunglasses, a cap, a shirt collar, or a head mount as well as the shirt itself or a dashboard, Taser International said.

The Los Angeles Police Department recently ordered 7,000 body cameras.

Taser International says a year-long Cambridge University study of the use of the system by the Rialto, Calif., Police Department showed use of the cameras resulted in an 88 percent reduction in citizen complaints against the police and a 60 percent reduction in police use of force.