By Hayley Tsukayama
Washington Post
The fatal shooting of Michael Brown has strengthened calls to have all police officers wear cameras at all times — an idea that has given a serious boost to firms that produce these cameras for police use. The stock for TASER, the stun-gun maker that also makes a line of wearable cameras for police officers, has jumped as much as 30 percent since the events in Ferguson first gained national media attention.
VieVu, a Seattle-based firm, has seen requests from police departments for free trials of its wearable camera jump 70 percent in just the past few days, according to company chief executive Steve Lovell.
Cost often keeps departments from deploying these cameras, which are priced at between $600 and $900 each, said VieVu’s Lovell. But growing evidence from police department trials around the world indicates that camera footage helps police resolve complaints. In complaint cases where video evidence was submitted from in-car cameras, 93 percent of complaints against officers were dismissed while 5 percent were sustained, according to a report from the IACP in 2004.
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