France’s interior ministry chooses VB400 body-worn cameras
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France’s Ministry of the Interior will deploy 30,000 of Motorola Solutions’ VB400 body-worn cameras amongst France’s National Police and the Gendarmerie (military police) to modernise its technology.
The deployment of these cameras, valued at U.S. $17.5 million (RM72 million), is one of the largest ever deployed and is expected to begin in July 2021.
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These cameras will support the French government’s goal to improve trust and safety in policing by having all law enforcement officers wearing body-worn cameras.
Maintaining safety, integrity
“Maintaining safety and integrity in all interactions between police and the community is a major priority for the National Police and the Gendarmerie, and video technology plays a vital role in achieving this,” said Jack Molloy, executive vice president, product and worldwide sales.
“After a rigorous testing and competitive process, our solutions ranked superior in performance, usability and the ability to seamlessly integrate into the workflows of France’s frontline police. We are proud to be their chosen partner and are committed to ongoing innovation with the French Government,” Molloy added.
The rugged VB400 is designed to protect both the police and the public with its intuitive recording function and the extended battery life that lasts beyond the shift with up to 12 hours of recording. Motorola Solutions will also provide a broad range of accessories including helmet cameras for motorcycle officers to capture high-definition footage even when riding at high-speed.
Future innovations can include Holster Aware which automatically activates a recording and live-streams body-worn camera footage if an officer draws his or her weapon as well as an Android-compatible application which enables officers to view and categorise footage in the field.
Seamless integration into mission-critical workflows
The cameras will be deployed with VideoManager evidence management software which is essential to improving efficiency as video increasingly becomes part of an agency’s workflow. The cameras seamlessly upload recorded video directly into VideoManager, where it is securely stored in-country and organised using time, date and location, together with incident data added by officers.
“This partnership follows a number of significant body-worn camera deployments,” said Molloy. “Since moving into the body-worn camera market, we have quickly become a global leader due to our differentiated solution that integrates into our mission-critical ecosystem spanning voice communications, command centre software, and video security and analytics.”
This is the latest in a series of global body-worn camera deployments both within enterprises and law enforcement agencies. Additional deployments include: Co-op in the U.K. as well as Metro Nashville Police, Romania National Police and London Ambulance Services.
In early June, Malta Police Force also deployed Motorola Solutions VB400 body-worn cameras to all frontline officers across the Republic of Malta. This rollout is part of its transformation strategy which aims to modernise the police force and also increase trust and transparency with the community.
Royal Malaysian Police
Meanwhile, according to the Malay Mail of 6 April 2021, the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador, who has since retired, had told a Singapore daily that rank and file Malaysian police would be equipped with body-mounted cameras as part of their uniform from around September or October 2021.
The same article also quoted Malaysia’s Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as having earlier said on March 25, that his government had allocated RM30 million to purchase body-mounted cameras for the police. He also said these cameras would protect the force from false accusations made by criminals and irresponsible individuals.
According to Hamid Bador, whilst the purchase is still under tender, the Malaysian Police expects to procure 2,100 units of these cameras, worth RM13,800 each to improve police personnel’s services and integrity in the field. It is expected to provide irrefutable evidence, especially when they had repeatedly been accused of alleged abuses of detainees.
However, the article did not mention the brand or brands of body-cameras which the police intended to eventually purchase.