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Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association releases ‘Best Practices on Body-Worn Cameras’

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association releases ‘Best Practices on Body-Worn Cameras.’ This comes less than ...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association releases 'Best Practices on Body-Worn Cameras.' This comes less than a year after new rules were put in place for when police can film using the cameras.

Thirteen pages detail the 'Best Practices on Body-Worn Cameras.' One of the suggestions, police department should come up with a clear policy on which duties or functions body cameras should be recording.

"So every single time the officer is using the body worn camera in a uniform way,' said Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo, "So that they have an encounter with an individual, they're not making a decision whether or not to turn it on on this encounter or not in another encounter."

Body camera technology is something only a few agencies are using, including Harrisburg City and Carlisle Police Departments. Before the release of these guidelines, Chardo says police departments have reached out asking questions on body camera usage.

"Making sure that they're complying with the law,' said Chardo. "When can they turn on the camera? When do they have to turn off the camera?"

While more departments are working to get the technology, it is a process. With these guidelines being released, Chardo hopes they make the transition to using body cameras easier for police departments.

"This is an expensive proposition, so a lot of them don't have the equipment yet because they've got to go through their process,' said Chardo. "But once they do have it they should have procedures in place and this is the suggested procedure that we've come up with."

For more information on the best practices on body-worn cameras click here.

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