Savannah police upgrade department with new body cameras

SAVANNAH, Tenn. — Savannah police chief Michael Pitts says he’s now able to watch over his team in high definition, thanks to a new system of body cameras recently added to the department.

“We felt like this will help ensure an additional level of protection and professionalism out of the Savannah Police Department,” said Chief Pitts.

Chief Pitts says this new updated body camera system is easy for officers to apply to their uniforms and even easier for him to keep track of all shift activity.

“It’s completely hands-off. When an officer turns their blue lights on, it activates their dash camera and their body camera as well, so there’s no more excuses of well I forgot to turn my body camera on,” Chief Pitts said.

The chief says there are 14 body cameras for every officer on staff, and he goes through random video reviews of the footage each day to ensure his team is doing their job to the best of their ability.

“The officer never knows if that’s going to be the one that gets pulled up and reviewed by everybody and could ultimately be a kudos or hopefully never in a bad situation,” said the chief.

The chief says the system also allows them to categorize every incident, including specific details.

“It tells us different things, the maximum speed that the officer got up to during this event,” Chief Pitts said. “The officer can tag the event. This one, it’s been tagged at a DUI.”

The videos, he says, will also help resolve public concerns in determining what happens on scene.

“We were able to review the footage and see that the officer did everything within policy that they were supposed to do, and we were able to close that complaint,” said the chief.

Chief Pitts says they are also hoping to phase in new dash cams on patrol vehicles.