Fulton County Police Joins Seven Other Atlanta-Area Law Enforcement Departments in Purchasing Utility's BodyWorn™ Automatic Recording Cameras

FULTON COUNTY, Ga., Dec. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Utility, Inc. announced today that the Fulton County Police Department, representing the largest County in the state of Georgia and home to the city of Atlanta, has chosen to equip its officers with BodyWorn™ body cameras. The decision was part of the Department's ongoing effort to enhance transparency and increase public trust throughout unincorporated Fulton County. BodyWorn™ is the only body camera solution that offers automatic, policy-based recording functionality. Fulton County, which purchased 110 BodyWorn™ body cameras, joins Clayton County, DeKalb County, Lilburn, Marietta, Decatur, the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and the Atlanta Department of Corrections in Metro Atlanta to choose BodyWorn™.

"These state-of-the-art cameras will be a beneficial tool to protect our police force on the front lines and to respond to any citizen's questions about an officer's actions," said Fulton County Chairman John Eaves.  "In addition, the cameras are able to archive video data and are a useful, cost-effective tool to help police in their investigations.  Clearly, this technology will enhance the accountability and transparency of our already top-notch police department."

BodyWorn™ is a smartphone embedded into the officer's uniform using a patent-pending mounting system.  The camera can't fall off, get snatched off the uniform, and remains stable if the Officer starts running or gets into a struggle. Policy-based recording triggers ensure the camera complies with a police department's specific recording and privacy policies.  4G-LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity makes BodyWorn™ the only body camera that can immediately upload encrypted video from the scene to secure Amazon AWS cloud storage.  If department policy allows, the police officer can view the video on the body camera screen immediately after recording.  Video can also be live-streamed to Central Dispatch in a crisis situation. 

The Fulton County Police Department also purchased 60 in-vehicle dashboard cameras and Rocket™ IoT devices, turning each patrol car into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. Police officers will also have video from the patrol car point of view, the back seat during prisoner transport, and real-time broadband data access in and around the patrol car, providing better information to protect and serve the public, and to protect police officers.

"Automatic, policy-based recording is essential for police accountability and transparency.  No other body camera can provide this capability," said Robert McKeeman, CEO of Utility.  "Studies have shown that manually-operated body cameras were not turned on up to 87% of the time policy says they should be. It is not realistic or safe to expect police officers in a tense situation to also have to remember to find and double-press a body camera start button.  Community trust and police transparency are damaged if an officer has a body camera, but no video is recorded.  BodyWorn™ provides automatic recording triggers that can be customized to meet any department's specific recording and privacy policy decisions.  Biases and human error are eliminated, and police officer safety is increased."

BodyWorn™ provides real-time connectivity to central dispatch.  Be On the Look Out (BOLO), Amber, and Silver alerts with pictures and text can be pushed out immediately to selected or all police officers.  BodyWorn™ can send Officer Down Emergency Alerts to notify central dispatch when an officer is down and not responding.  BodyWorn™ also automatically sends the Officer Down Emergency Alert to all nearby officers, with turn-by-turn directions to the Down Officer's location, so help can arrive quickly.

In addition, the Fulton County Police Department will also be equipped with Utility's revolutionary new feature, Smart Scene 360™. This capability, which comes standard on each BodyWorn™ camera at no additional cost and requires no new hardware, uses 360 degree imaging technology to create a digital model of a crime scene. The new technology enables Law Enforcement officials, District Attorneys and Courts to view crime scenes in 3D virtual reality long after an incident occurs.

For more information about Utility's Evidence Ecosystem, visit http://www.bodyworn.com.

About BodyWorn™
BodyWorn™ incorporates real-time communications for the best situational awareness possible during the most critical times.  Unlike Generation 1 body cameras, BodyWorn™ has automatic recording triggers based upon department policies, officer down emergency reporting, live video streaming, and secure automatic wireless video upload to cloud storage. BodyWorn™ video, audio and metadata can be accessed through its cloud-based digital evidence management solution AVaiL Web™.  All of Utility's recording solutions, including Rocket IoT™ in-car video system, leverage Amazon Web Services cloud processing and storage.

About Smart Redaction™
Utility's unique Smart Redaction™ is included as part of the overall video management software solution.  Video can be redacted quickly and at low cost to protect citizen and police officer privacy while increasing transparency and accountability.    

Utility US Patents include:
6,831,556 – Composite Mobile Digital Information System
7,768,548 – Mobile Digital Video Recording System
8,781,475 – Method for Switching between Cellular Networks
9,246,898 – Method for Securely Distributing Legal Evidence
9,282,495 – System and Method for Switching between Cellular Networks
9,432,402 – Method for Uploading Files Utilizing GPS Routing

Contact: Jake Mendlinger
Office: 516-829-8374 / Cell: 516-639-3373
Email: Jmendlinger@zimmed.com

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SOURCE Utility, Inc.