Iowa Police Department Considering Adding Cameras To Their Firearms

By Tom Knighton

When there’s a police shooting, there are always questions about what happened and why. Was the suspect armed? Did they appear to be going for a weapon? Did the officer panic? People want to know why a person is dead and whether the officer had no choice but to defend themselves.

Unfortunately, far too often, we don’t have much in the way of evidence. We have the officer’s word and little else without additional witnesses or a recording of the encounter.

Dash cameras work in some cases, but unless the shooting happens within the view of the camera, it doesn’t help.

Now, an Iowa police department is adding cameras to their officers’ weapons.

One Iowa police department is adding cameras to its handguns.

Hiawatha Police Chief Dennis Marks told KCRG that the new cameras will help ensure that a full recording will be made of any incident when officers pull their weapons.

Marks says body cameras can be obscured by arms or objects during confrontations, but an officer’s gun is out front where it isn’t likely to be blocked.

Now, when I first saw the headline, I wondered why the department wasn’t going to use body cameras. They seem to be much easier to …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms