“At the tech showcase on Aug. 13 [2015], officers were staked out in front of city hall with what looked like surveying equipment — a tripod holding up advanced hardware that, when aimed right, can map out an entire crime scene down to some of the smallest details. The laser mapping device has already been put to work throughout the city, and used in a number of recent traffic incidents.
The device is able to bounce a laser beam off a reflector on the device and measure out critical information about the scene, according to Sgt. Saul Jaeger of the Mountain View Police Department. It can record the resting place of various parts of the vehicle as well as the size, the length and the arc of the skid marks on to road to help police determine how fast and what angle the car was going when it skidded into the center divide and into a tree.
Many officers patrolling the streets in Mountain View already have them on — tiny clip-on cameras that can be snapped onto uniforms and sunglasses, and monitor everything they see in their day-to-day interactions with the public.
How are the officers feeling about it? Jaeger said the department still has to work with the police union to finalize all the rules, such as when officers are required to keep the camera on and when they are allowed to turn them off to handle sensitive information and personal conversations. But the cameras themselves are a real hit, he said.
From www.mv-voice.com.