Watervliet Police using state of the art dash cam technology

The Albany County city of Watervliet has rolled out new police technology.  

Democratic Mayor Charles Patricelli says the city has just deployed the latest in police cam technology, known as the Axon Fleet 3 system.

 "The actual cameras were installed only about a week ago," Patricelli said. "There's a an out of town company that came in and spent a couple of days installing them into five cars, and so now all five of the cars have have these type of cameras. It's just a fantastic way of, you know, kind of keeping control over what you have, what's coming and going. With all the gun violence and all the other things that are going on around, you know, around us and around even our entire country, I think this makes people feel a little safer, that you know, if there is anything that's you know, that that we know of, that we're trying to prevent, this is going to make a good deterrent."

Among local departments, Albany officers began using body cams in 2017. Other municipalities soon followed.

Watervliet’s state-mandated Police Policy Review Committee first recommended officers be issued body cams in March 2021 as a way to improve transparency. In June 2022, each officer, detective, and command officer on the force was outfitted.

A year later the city rolled out a stationary security camera system that police could watch in real time.

Watervliet Police Chief William Rice says the new system is giant leap over earlier police camera technology, benefitting both officers and those they come into contact with while on duty.

"It documents more stuff for arrests," said Rice. "If the officer's in court, it also protects them for any false allegations that might be made. I know there's a lot of trigger points that we set up in the vehicle that set off the cameras. For instance, if the back door of the police car is open and it's open for more than three seconds, it triggers the cameras that go on to start recording, which also links to the body cams. So everything is linked together and is recording all the same kind of footage at the same time."

Rice says the system elevates transparency, accountability, and community relations, and was made possible via a $166,000 grant from the New York Department of Criminal Justice Services. Rice says about half was allocated to a five-year contract with Axon for the full deployment, integration and long-term support of Fleet 3. Rice is now able to tap into any camera, any time.

"Axon has definitely come far in their technology," Rice said. "We have triggers set up even with the holsters on our firearms. Anytime anyone draws their firearm, it automatically activates the cameras. The officers aren't thinking about having to push that button now. It automatically triggers the cameras to activate and record. It then alerts me as the chief that someone drew their duty weapon."

Rice says all videos are saved on a storage cloud provided by Axon, free of any data cap so that footage can remain virtually accessible should it be needed in the future. Police are provided with an app so they can tap into that cloud from any of their electronic devices.