Henry County board OK’s tech supplies for police

Body camera accessories and tablets are being purchased for Henry County police.

Body camera accessories and tablets are being purchased for Henry County police.

The Henry County Board of Commissioners approved a $252,240 contract on behalf of the Henry County Police Department for three years’ use of Visual Labs body-worn camera technology.

The contract allows 180 officers to use the Visual Labs app on their smartphones at a cost of $38 per month. The total amount includes $2,000 per year that will allow the Crime Scene Unit to upload a maximum of 4,000 photographs per month at 10 megabytes each.

Also approved was a $3,000 expenditure for five Galaxy Android tablets and five iPads for the on-call Magistrate Judge warrant process. In the past, detectives and officers were required to hold crime scenes while warrants were obtained from magistrate judges. This process extended the time that police were not available to answer calls. These tablets will allow them to speak to judges via FaceTime with an electronic warrant writing program called Focalpoint, expediting the warrant process while remaining on the scene.

The money for the tablets is coming from the Federal Seized Funds account.