Parking Division field employees in Newark will be wearing body worn cameras as part of their uniforms.
Parking Coordinators and Parking Ambassadors who do parking enforcement in the city will start wearing cameras.
One way the cameras will be used is to gather evidence that could be used in court cases by capturing video and audio interactions.
Renee Bensley is the director of planning and development for Newark, and she says the devices will also be used as a de-escalation tool.
"Body worn cameras also have the ability not only just to record but to de-escalate circumstances, right? So, if people are being filmed, sometimes they will behave differently than if they are not being filmed. So, we always have trained our Parking Ambassadors in de-escalation techniques for the field, and we really look at this body worn camera project as another tool to help advance that model of work in the field," said Bensley.
Newark officials hope this will also allow for better insight on certain decisions and lead to improved customer service.
Bensley says there have been situations over the years where a body worn camera could have been useful.
"So, we have had a few incidents over the last couple of years, where there has been some escalated issues in the field, where it was felt that having camera footage of those issues would have added to the material available to review to see how those interactions went," said Bensley.
The footage will be kept on the same platform used by Newark Police, but the Parking Division will have a separate login so the police can’t just look at the footage without anyone else knowing according to Bensley.
The city will also use the cameras as a training tool for new employees.
The cameras are currently being worn as part of a testing phase with a full rollout expected by May 1.
