Many of today’s officers who are part of large and midsize agencies couldn’t imagine working a shift without a body-worn camera (BWC). Compact in size and easy to use, these devices have made a huge impact when it comes to officer safety, building community trust and providing an irrefutable account of what occurs during suspect encounters.
Beyond the camera itself, companies that provide this technology to departments also typically include a wide range of software components with their solution, allowing officers to upload footage and catalog it among other types of files to build a well-rounded case.
But do officers really need all of that? Can they afford it?
What about departments in small, rural America that operate with only a few dozen officers – or less? The benefits of body-worn cameras and their accompanying software are plentiful, but such robust solutions come with price tags that are completely out of reach for fiscally constrained agencies.
Departments operating on shoestring budgets, particularly those that may even use pen and paper for some processes, might want the benefits of BWC footage but have felt as if they are left with no options – until now.
A new player in the BWC space
There’s no argument that body-worn cameras play an important role in modern policing, but the most-used vendors have designed solutions that just don’t work for small, rural agencies. Beyond coming in at a price point that’s just not fathomable for, say, an eight-person department, the IT infrastructure needed to deploy and maintain such a program often isn’t in place.
Having witnessed these challenges firsthand after spending time at Motorola, the founders of Trusted Technology Solutions sought to develop a solution. Entering the market in 2025, the company offers a cloud-based platform at a price smaller agencies can afford, with only the features they need most.
“Body-worn camera hardware is pretty consistent across all brands,” explained Mel Eakley, retired law enforcement officer and director of sales at Trusted Technology. “They all record in high definition. They have a similar field of view. They don’t do low light. The batteries are pretty consistent. The real differentiator with all body-worn camera companies is the software.”
Keeping it simple with software
Large body-worn camera programs come with software that integrates with a department’s CAD system, links to their license plate recognition platforms, can handle footage from doorbell cameras and much more. These features can be critical for departments with hundreds of officers that handle a high volume of complex cases, but not all agencies need this level of sophistication.
Consider a department somewhere in rural America that has a dozen or so sworn officers and serves a population of only several thousand. It’s likely that high-tech solutions like drones, real-time crime centers or gunshot detection aren’t widely deployed there, making a robust BWC program unnecessary.
Instead, Trusted Technology’s affordable and simple single-focus software solution provides such a department with the capability to capture footage as needed and manage it within a user-friendly platform. This emphasis on the basics makes Trusted Technology’s solution up to 60% less expensive than other options in the market.
The company’s only product, the T500, is designed to be easy to use without worrying about help from an IT department, too. Agencies are shipped a docking station and BWCs along with a single instruction page, allowing them to self-deploy and train on the solution in about one hour. Others in the market recommend 24 hours of training to be able to use their competing solutions, says Eakley.
“We handle all the cyber pieces, so they don’t have to worry about malware and things like that,” he continued. “They don’t have to worry about housing multiple servers in the police department – we kind of bear that burden. We take that IT responsibility away for them. We provide them with a level of comfort and security with our cybersecurity. We obviously provide redundancy. And we really provide only what they need, which is to manage their body-worn camera footage. That’s all we do.”
Using the T500 during a shift
Small in size and offering a full shift battery life, Trusted Technology’s T500 allows officers to record and manage BWC footage with minimal effort. Unlike other complex solutions that might require an in-car router or advanced connectivity to activate Bluetooth or automatic recording, the T500 operates with a simple on and off button.
Once a shift is complete, officers return their camera to the docking station and offload their footage. The Trusted Vault software platform allows officers to classify recordings as felonies, traffic stops, misdemeanors and more, ensuring footage is automatically kept according to state evidence retention guidelines. These tags also help during search and filter functions.
Every action within the platform is tracked for CJIS-compliant chain of custody requirements, making captured footage court-ready without jumping through a multitude of steps. Cloud storage is unlimited and footage can be emailed or exported if necessary.
‘Simple, reliable, affordable’
Complex body-worn camera systems are appropriate for major metropolitan agencies, but like any other type of law enforcement technology, they aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. The goal of Trusted Technology Solutions is to provide a cloud-based alternative to expensive BWC programs that aligns with how small, rural agencies actually operate, giving them everything they need and nothing they don’t.
“We are simple, reliable, affordable,” said Eakley. “We’re brilliant at the basics.”
Visit Trusted Technology Solutions for more information.
