Beginning on January 1, 2021, all officers began wearing a Body-Worn Camera, or BWC, which will allow officers to capture their encounters with the public.  The program, which was approved in August of 2020 by the mayor and Lansdale Borough Council, provided funding to purchase 28  BWC, related supporting equipment, and the cloud-based server for data storage.

In the fall of 2020, the LBPD developed, and implemented, new policies and procedures for the use of BWC’s in Lansdale as well as a department-wide training program for all personnel. While there have been numerous studies relating to the use of BWC’s by police, and while there are sometimes mixed opinions on BWC’s, there is no doubt in our opinion the video they capture provides greater transparency into policing thereby providing another level of accountability to the community we serve.

Policing works when communities trust in their police; trust comes from being transparent in everything we do and accountable when mistakes are made. To that end, we believe the BWC program at LPD is not about technology but about building and keeping the public’s trust; When people trust one another, they cooperate.

When the community and police work in cooperation, and collaboration, great things happen and LBD’s BWC program will be there to document the improvements we make, together, in keeping Lansdale Borough a great place to live, work, and play.

###