LAKELAND, Fla. — Lakeland is the latest law enforcement agency in Polk County to purchase body cameras for its officers.
All 250 Lakeland police officers are getting body cameras. Starting with uniformed patrol officers on the streets. They’ll be outfitted by the end of this week.
“Everybody in our marked patrol cars. So patrol division, traffic units, they’re the first ones getting them so that we can have at least those out by the end of the year,” said Assistant Chief Hans Lehman.
Assistant Chief Lehman said the Lakeland Police Department is undergoing a massive technology upgrade. Officers are not only getting body cameras, but new tasers, in-car dashboard cameras and smartphones.
The phones will allow officers to take crime scene photos and videos, tag them and automatically upload them to cloud storage. Lehman said the phones may also improve response times.
“They’ll be able to see what calls are pending from their phone,” Lehman said. “So, if they are away from their car on another call or away from their car for whatever reason, and they look at their phone and see calls are pending, they’ll be able to get back to their car and start responding.”
Lt. Frank Fitzgerald leads the two-hour training course the officers must take before receiving a body cam.
“The public has asked and demanded the accountability and transparency as we’re performing our law enforcement services. So, that’s what we’ve really tried to educate our members. As we’re going out and providing that service, that’s when our cameras need to be on,” said Fitzgerald.
The Lakeland Police Department is the fourth agency in Polk County to issue officers body cams. Lehman said it emphasizes their committment to transparency.
“There’s lots of people that record video but it’s snippets and then it gets posted to social media. Now we actually will have a recording from start to finish.” Lehman said.
