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BART Cops Become First To Use New Camera System On Patrol

OAKLAND (CBS 5) - The company that created the Taser has a new high-tech tool for police, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department is the first in the nation to put it to use.

BART has purchased 160 body cameras for their front-line officers, sergeants and field lieutenants.

The camera is small enough to fit onto sunglasses, so officers can document their interaction with the public. The BART police department has ordered collar mounted cameras, although officers can buy the own sunglasses if they want.

"The camera itself is about the diameter of (a) pen. So what you would see is the camera on the collar or the sunglass mount," described Ben Fairow, of the BART Police Department.

BART is still working on the policy of how these cameras will be used.

Taser said the new technology will eventually allow police departments the ability to stream live, so command staff could see an event unfolding. While officers control the on and off button, they cannot delete footage. The video will help in officer training and settling accusations of police misconduct or abuse, as well as prosecuting suspects.

The storage is gong to be in evidence.com which is a cloud based storage system. So the evidence would download here will go to off-site servers.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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