Executive Council approves more body, cruiser cameras for State Police

The New Hampshire Executive Council voted Wednesday to appropriate nearly $3.4 million for body and cruiser cameras for NH state troopers.

The five-member council voted unanimously during a meeting at the Showroom venue in Keene to enter into a contract with the Georgia-based Utility Associates, Inc. to implement a digital evidence management system for State Police.

“This is long overdue for our agency,” said State Police Col. Nathan Noyes. “It is certainly going to create greater transparency, better evidence collection. It’s going to show and document exactly what’s going on at any given event or incident throughout the state that our troopers are facing.”

Complaints from the public tend to decrease when law enforcement officers use body cameras, he added.

The money the council approved Wednesday will cover the cost of implementing the program, five years of software subscription, maintenance and support services for 320 body cameras and 522 vehicle cameras — with two designated for each vehicle. It will also provide 31 designated wireless access points, a hosted video repository system and records-management system, and software required to process digital evidence.

“This is going to encompass ... our photographs, audio, video files and all the data associated with that,” Noyes said. “[It] comes in through our troopers, through the evidence they collect, and it goes out to our prosecutors and also to our defense attorneys.”

According to Assistant State Police Commissioner Rick Bailey, the hope is to have the program fully operational by late October or early November.

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The contract approval follows a series of recommendations the state’s Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency (LEACT) issued last August, including one suggesting that all State Police officers and their vehicles be outfitted with recording equipment. Gov. Chris Sununu established the commission in the wake of George Floyd’s May 2020 murder by Minneapolis police.

Sununu endorsed the commission’s recommendations and also issued an executive order in October that immediately implemented 20 of them, including the use of body cameras by State Police.

The use of body cameras has also been considered by the city of Keene and Cheshire County but has not yet been implemented there.

“It’s a win-win,” said District 3 Executive Councilor Janet Stevens, R-Rye. ”This protection is going extend from the public to our State Police.”

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Mia Summerson can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or msummerson@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MiaSummerson.

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