MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – There are more cameras on the streets of Macomb County Monday now that every deputy in the county is wearing a body camera.
The brand-new cameras went out Monday, and police said they're recording even when they're not, in a way.
The cameras cost the department $225,000, and they come with a three-year warranty.
We live in a world now in which almost anything can be recorded at any time, so the Macomb County Sheriff's Office is taking advantage of that technology.
Now every single Macomb County deputy will have a body camera that records every interaction they have.
"If you came to me and said, 'Why don't you have body cameras?' I wouldn't have a good answer for you," Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said.
Wickersham said that more and more departments are turning to body cams, and the video is becoming evidence when sometimes a distant recording tells a different story.
"No matter where you're at, there's a camera on you somewhere," Wickersham said. "So why not get the technology to show our story of exactly what transpired there?"
A recording is made one of three ways. A deputy can manually hit the record button, the camera will automatically record when police car lights turn on, and there's a function called "record after the fact," which can retrieve video even if it wasn't recording at the time.
The device records everything and deletes this old automatic footage as time goes on, but in the event of something unexpected, it can be saved permanently before that happens.
There's a total of three cameras rolling with deputies: The dashcam, the back-seat cam and their new body cams.
"This is what we need to do," Wickersham said. "Show the public we have nothing to hide."
Just like dashcam video, the body cam footage will be kept for 90 days unless it becomes evidence in a case. In those instances, the video is kept forever.