The Kirtland Police Department recently received new cameras for its officers and their vehicles. Police Chief Brian McCallister said that the department is rolling out the cameras and could have them in use by this week. The new technology includes six vehicle cameras and eight body cameras. He added that the new cameras are also connected to the internet, which means that officers will not need to manually download data to computers. “It also makes it easier for us to identify certain types of calls and events, because with this new system, we can actually label everything, every vehicle has an assigned car number and every officer, when they come in, they check out a camera and their information is linked to that camera as well as the in-car system that they’re using for the day,” McCallister said. “You can go through simultaneously and kind of watch whatever event you need to look at,” he added later. “You can create time stamps, you can link reports, you can also get transcripts from the audio portion, so, it adds a lot of features that we haven’t had, so, it really, it modernizes the department, I think it makes it easier for us to do our jobs.” McCallister said that the police department previously used vehicle cameras, but that they had been phased out and replaced by body cameras only before he became chief in 2021. He added that the cameras can help with officer safety and liability concerns. The equipment lease cost the city $105,000 and will last for five years, McCallister said. The lease also includes a wireless hub and the replacement of equipment every three years. “I think it’s good for us, it helps us to have more evidence for getting criminal convictions, for officers that do a lot of traffic, it allows them to capture the violations, it’s not just word of mouth anymore, so people can actually see what’s going on, what the officers are seeing real-time and why they’re making the enforcement decisions that they are,” McCallister said. “I think it will just add a layer of confidence to the community that we’re going out there and we’re doing the right things,” he added.