King City, California first agency to implement Viridian Gun Cameras also in use by LA Port Police and approved by LA County
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – June 23, 2020 – The King City, California Police Department has deployed the FACT Duty™ Weapon-Mounted Camera (WMC™). As transparency in Law Enforcement once again becomes a critical need at this juncture in society today, Chief Robert Masterson and the department have the only technology and tool dedicated to capturing Officer Involved Shootings.
King City is in Monterey County of Central California and sits almost equidistant from several large, major California cities on the banks of the Salinas River. King City is the first department in California to complete implementation of the FACT Duty which is in various stages of testing and implementation in over 40 states across the country.
“The Weapon-Mounted Cameras were purchased and implemented to capture use of force incidents where officers drew their firearms or were involved in an Officer Involved Shooting,” said King City Police Captain Keith Boyd. “As we have all seen, the country, the community and the world expect objective and immediate evidence of Officer Involved Shootings. And this gun camera does just that. They complement our body worn cameras and we see them as a benefit in modern policing.”
Viridian has created an important category for law enforcement with the Weapon-Mounted Camera. This distinctive camera provides an unobstructed view of critical use-of-force events from the end of the firearm, addressing limitations officers can face with body cameras.
“We commend Chief Masterson and the King City Police for being on the leading edge of law enforcement,” Viridian President and CEO, Brian Hedeen, said. “California has one of the largest number of officers in the country, so this is absolutely needed. Our technology can be a supplement or alternative to body cameras as a mandatory evidentiary tool to provide the critical evidence in an officer involved shooting.”
The highly advanced WMC employs a 1080p full-HD digital camera with a microphone and 500 lumen tactical light. Viridian’s proprietary INSTANT-ON® technology automatically activates the camera and microphone whenever the officer draws the firearm from its holster. Not only does this eliminate risk of failure to manually turn on the camera during a critical event, but it also keeps the officer from fumbling with cumbersome equipment.
Given that in the 9th Circuit, officers may not point firearms at subjects without cause, see Robinson v. Solano County and it is counter-indicated to hold suspects at high ready, this product is dangerous and will lead to possible excessive force claims and negligent discharges. If this device is used according to law and proper training the videos produced will show the ground in front of the suspect, in most cases, not what the suspect is doing prior to shooting.
Pretty sure that this is in addition to—not in lieu of—body cameras, which often fail to tell the whole story about justifiable applications of deadly force. The cameras are a critical tool that are going nowhere. Body cameras keep Officers AND CITIZENS honest. Gun cameras present a field of view unobstructed by the Officer’s limbs.
Exactly, the FACT Duty is designed to augment the body camera. One of the original needs that it addressed was the fact what when the officer did need to point at the subject the body cameras view of what the subject was doing could not be seen due to the officers arms and gun being in the way.
Curious how reliable that “automatic on” technology works…
God knows there’s plenty of stories out there now with the phrase “officers failed to activate bodycams…”
From the testing we did it was very reliable, more so than having to rely on officers having to switch cameras on, which they often forget to do. As the others have alluded to, you need other sources such as vehicle and body worn as the gun cameras doesn’t capture the build up to the officer drawing their side arm.
The automatic on is a very simple bit of design. A magnet in the holster holds the on/off switch in the off position. As soon as you remove the firearm from the holster it goes into the on position. I have used this technology on their weapon mounted lasers for years and it has worked without fail. I have also used it with the FACT Duty without issue.
Along the same lines as my dashcam. It’s wired into my lights so when I hit them it turns on. It also loops for a minute so I can retro record, which is nice.