Department Initiatives—Technology
More Body Cameras Deployed The Fort Worth Police Department is one of the nation’s leaders in the use of body camera technology. The Department began using body cameras to increase transparency and to improve the public’s trust in law enforcement. Body worn cameras also assist with officer safety, situational awareness and evidence in trials. Since the Fort Worth Police Department began the implementation of body cameras, no civil suits have been awarded against the City for incidents captured on video. As of December 2015, the City of Fort Worth had deployed a total of 595 body cameras.
The City of Fort Worth uses the Axon Flex camera, which is a small device with advanced technical maturity along with a secure and trackable evidence management system that is one of the most advanced web interface solution on the market. The Axon Flex camera platform connects to the cloud and provides officers with an end-to-end solution. Each kit consist of a box which includes the body camera device, a variety of mounts for wearable options, a pair of Oakley sunglasses to mount the camera, and a Wi-Fi based mobile phone device (without cellular ser- vice) equipped with the Evidence.com mobile application. The mobile phone allows the officers to review their videos taken from their body cameras, take still photos of crime scenes required by the District Attor- ney’s Office, and log all collected evidence onto evidence.com.
The mobile device provides additional protection to the officer, as it allows officers to mount the camera on their baton to search high-risk areas, such as attics, while displaying the search area on their mobile device. The camera is the lightest and smallest known in the industry to-date. In addition, the digital evidence management system allows the department to securely store and track any uploaded digital evi- dence.
Crime Lab Gets Hits on CODIS Database FWPD’s Crime Lab was granted access to the Combined DNA Index Sys- tem (CODIS) in December 2014. CODIS is a national database of DNA records that is used to search crime scene samples against convicted offend- ers and evidence from other crimes to provide investigative leads. Between December 2014 and December 2015, 112 profiles were entered into CODIS and 85 hits were obtained. There were also some changes in Texas legisla- tion last year, Senate Bill 1636, which required all older sexual assault cases to be entered into CODIS. The Crime Lab outsourced 137 of these cases to UNT and logs profiles that were worked by UNT and DPS. Last year they logged 232 of these non-Senate Bill cases. This means that 369 hits were logged last year on top of the 85 hits that were processed in-lab!
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