I don’t know why we can’t get our teammates in the same room and vet some of the solutions.” “I just feel we need to get our teammates healthy,” he said. He said the quarterback can throw the ball down the field, but the receivers are out there with one hand tied behind their backs and being asked to catch the ball. He likened the OCPD to a quarterback, with the county and the state’s attorney’s office as receivers. Gehrig used a football analogy to illustrate his point. There is going to be a ton of video to process.” If we roll this out in April, we’re going to have some hiccups, especially in June. Part of our team is the county and the state’s attorney’s office and we have received some concerns from our teammates. “The police department did a great job in vetting the providers and I know we’re ready. “It’s great that we’re moving forward,” he said. Councilman John Gehrig said he supported the body-worn camera program, but raised concerns the OCPD’s partners weren’t yet prepared for the increased burden headed their way. Just last week, county officials toured space in the Public Safety Building in Ocean City as a potential satellite office for the state’s attorney’s office. Earlier this month, the Worcester County Commissioners approved 12 requested new positions from Worcester County State’s Attorney Kris Heiser largely due to the resort’s body camera program. Of course, implementing the body-worn camera program will cause a trickle-down of stress with the thousands of hours of body camera footage needing to be processed, stored and potentially used as evidence in the prosecution of cases. I have to give a lot of credit to the command staff. There are some bullet points that were issues to resolve, but all of those issues have been resolved to our satisfaction. “We have worked with the OCPD command staff and Axon. “There were some questions with pricing,” he said.

McGean said some last-minute issues in the contract itself had been resolved and it was time for the council to make a decision on moving forward with the program for this year. On Tuesday, City Manager Terry McGean presented the Mayor and Council with a final contract with Axon for approval. To that end, the department tested three different vendors, and after careful vetting, opted to go with private provider Axon. However, Ocean City and its police department have expressed an interest in getting out in front of the body-worn camera issue and have spend the last several months planning to have a program in place for the summer of 2022. Last year, the state legislature passed the Maryland Police Accountability Act, which requires the majority of police officers in Maryland to be equipped with cameras by 2025. The Mayor and Council on Tuesday had before them a request to approve the contract with private vendor Axon to provide body-worn cameras for all Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officers, seasonal officers and public safety aides. OCEAN CITY – Ocean City police officers this summer will be equipped with body-worn cameras after resort officials this week approved the contract with the vendor, although questions about executing the program linger.

Ambausb police body worn camera