ATHENS, GA- Amidst a national conversation about police brutality, Athens-Clarke County Police Department is ahead of the game.
The Obama Administration announced Monday that they are taking steps to improve police training and that they will provide funding for police body cameras. Athens-Clarke County however, already uses police body cameras and has been using them since February. Assistant Police Chief Stephens says it’ll take more than body cameras.
Stephens says “Its the partnerships, we want to be transparent here and video cameras help us do that.”
And while officers are hard at work keeping the community safe, he says that doesn’t solve the problem of community distrust a lot of the time.
Stephens says “It’s about building the trust and treating people with dignity and respect.”
Stephens thinks that the cameras are so beneficial that he wants more than just traffic officers wearing them. The Athens-Clarke County Police Department is in the process of ramping up their video camera program to get more cameras out on the streets.
