Starkville Police make major upgrade to body cameras that automatically record when officers respond to incidents

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The Starkville Police Department is making major upgrades to its body camera system.

SPD has been in the process of training officers to use their new Body Worn Cameras.

The 60 new cameras are made by a company called Utility, which describes them as the next generation of body cameras. Designed specifically by former law enforcement members, the cameras have the size and feel of a smartphone. The cameras rest in the front of the officer’s uniform and are designed to automatically record when an officer responds to an incident.

The system also includes 40 cameras installed in the SPD squad cars. When an officer gets in their car, their camera synchronizes with the system and the computer-aided dispatch activation can recognize when the officer responds to a high-priority call. Utility’s Director of North American Sales Mark Wood says this all goes towards ensuring the trust between law enforcement and their communities.

“The cameras are going to come on, record the incident based on the department’s requirements and the community’s requirements and it’s going to record that incident and it’s not going to require officer intervention to make that happen,” he explained. “So what that means is, the community and the police department are going to have transparency between each other and not have those incidents where, the body camera, the officer forgot to turn the body camera on, now there’s questions about what really happened, distrust, all those things.”

SPD says the 60 cameras are enough for every sworn officer and detective on the force to have one. Other features include emergency alerts for when an officer is down as well as a Smart Holster that records exactly when an officer draws their service weapon.

The department says it has been working on upgrading its body cameras since 2020 and bought the new system with over $600,000 of city funding.