By Frank Mustac, Contributor
Future interactions between the Pennington Borough Police Department’s officers and the general public will be under the watchful eye of technology, as the council approved a measure to help pay for body cameras., The decision came on Monday when the governing body voted unanimously to authorize the funds necessary to purchase the devices for the handful of law enforcement officers that serve the municipality., “One of the reasons we are moving ahead with the purchase of the body-worn cameras is that we were told by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office that we received a grant to fund part of this,” Pennington Borough Public Safety Director William Meytrott said. “If we did not utilize the grant, the grant would be pulled.”, The $2,500 grant is coming from the state through the prosecutor’s office., The body cameras, Meytrott said, are highly recommended by the state Attorney General’s Office and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, though there is no state law that currently requires local police to use body cameras., Over the years, the use of body-worn cameras on police has been considered by many advocates as a way to introduce another level of accountability to the country’s police force, while also providing evidence that could protect officers against false claims., Concerned with the privacy of both parties filmed by such devices, Deputy Mayor Joseph Lawver asked what happens to the videos and other bits of data generated by the body cameras., “It goes into our in-house system, which is integrated with the car video system. It’s all-in-one,” Meytrott said. “That’s why we went with the WatchGuard system, because that’s the car video system we already have.”, This body camera system, he said, “integrates with the ones in the cars, seamlessly.”, “We haven’t yet received the information from the county prosecutor’s office on how long of a time to hold on to the (body camera) videos,” Meytrott said., When asked by Borough Councilman Charles Marciante whether there was an actual need for body cameras in Pennington, Meytrott said he sees the use of the cameras as part of “best practices.”, “I think it can be a positive thing,” he said., Whether or not the body cameras were something that the Pennington Police Department’s officer wanted was another question, entirely., “I have not heard any of the Pennington Police officers express reservations,” Meytrott said. “Nationally, I think the jury is still out.”
