What is the market outlook for police cameras? (with related video)

There is plenty of interest in equipping police with cameras. Business intelligence provider Onvia recently named body worn police cameras as one of its “10 hotspots in government contracting.”

Onvia says the cameras are among the 10 fastest growing areas in the government procurement market. Researchers analyzed 458 unique industries in terms of recent growth using Onvia’s database of state, local and education bids and RFPs. In addition, researchers analyzed purchase orders from tens of thousands of government agencies to determine the 10 hotspots. Go here for details on the 10 fast-growing areas. Onvia delivers business intelligence to help businesses win more government contracts.

Reuters surveyed the 20 largest U.S. police forces and found wide interest among departments to equip officers with body cameras. The news agency found, however, that while 16 departments have equipped some of their officers with cameras or plan to do so, not one department has yet been able to provide units to all of its patrol officers.

GPN reached out to Todd Morris, CEO of New York-based BrickHouse Security (photo below on right), to get his views on body camera trends in the market. Brickhouse is a surveillance and security company that has been selling body cameras to police officers and departments for nearly a decade. Here are Todd Morris’ views.

GPN: Do you see increased sales in the balance of 2015?

Todd Morris: Based on the number of RFPs and evaluations we are seeing, we expect a significant increase in deployments this year.

GPN: Are there any models that are selling especially well?

TM: We offer a wide variety of police cams for any situation. Here’s a hyperlink to the police camera section on the BrickHouse Security site. The cameras are sorted in order of popularity.

GPN: What law enforcement applications are drawing the most interest?

TM: The focus seems to be on officers on patrol.

GPN: Are governments increasing their budgets to buy more cameras?

TM: We are seeing departments request additional budget or grants for this project.

GPN: Do you have any advice for governments/police thinking of buying police body cameras?

TM: Most deployments are currently stalled in the legal department waiting for a policy on how to deal with access to the video collected. Police departments have seen what happens when they make mugshots and arrest records public. Unscrupulous people use the mugshots to build Internet extortion schemes. That forces innocent people to deal with the media broadcasting of their worst moments out of context.

I am confident that the lawyers and politicians can outlaw this misuse of “public information” and write policy that will allow police to get access to the cameras they need to ultimately reduce the insane cost of legal “settlements” for false accusations against police.

In the meantime, we are seeing thousands of police officers buy body cameras with their own money to protect their reputation and career.

GPN: Thank you, Todd Morris, for your views.    
 
In the video, BrickHouse Security CEO Todd Morris and a group of police experts weigh the pros and cons of police body cameras. They are appearing on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.

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