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Thread: Watchguard camera systems

  1. #1
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Maryland

    Watchguard camera systems

    We're going to Watchguard body-worn and dashboard cameras. Does anyone have experience with them? If so, any advice, tricks of the trade, warnings, or suggestions? Thanks and be safe.

  2. #2
    My agency uses the watchguard dash cams. Occasionally something breaks down with the servers and video from the car won’t transfer over until we can get a contractor to come over and fix it. The video is generally of good quality. Depending on where you are (hospital, warehouse, factory, etc) there may be too much interference for the audio from your body mic to be transferred to the car.

    We tried out some watchguard body cams but haven’t fielded them officially. I liked it while I had one. My only complaint was that the body cam wasn’t synced to the dash cam so I had to hit the button on the body cam to turn it on and the button on the dash cam’s corresponding body mic to get the dash cam to activate. It would have been nice if activating the body cam also activated the dash cam.

    Actually downloading the footage to a USB or DVD for criminal cases was simple.


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  3. #3
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    PA
    We have the MVR's from Watchguard. What would you like to know? The only advice that I can offer is to watch the battery life on the "tattler" which it how we refer to the clip on mic. It has a battery life that is shorter than the average PF Member's attention span on the opening day of Shot Show. If you leave them in the charger then you forget them when you get out of the car and the defense will claim that you did it intentionally to violate the D's rights.
    . If you don't, the tattler dies on you and the defense will claim that you intentionally shut off the mic to violate the D's rights. PA also has really strict wiretap laws. Officers have to be careful to adhere to them.

  4. #4
    We dont use them but NCSHP has bought a fuckton of them the last couple years. The video I posted in the UOF thread with the deputy and trooper OIS was on that system. It records panoramic and normal at the same time. The guys in my AO have mixed reviews of them but the videos i have seen from them are good. I know there was an issue with some of them not downloading when they were at the office.

  5. #5
    Member John Hearne's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Northern Mississippi
    We just bought 20 of their combo dash-cam and body-cam systems. These are supposed to be the integrated model where one camera activates the other. The only issue I see is that the system relies entirely on the body camera to record audio. No body camera, no audio. I'd love to see every car have a spare wireless mic for when the body camera is downloading or it's forgotten at the house.

    They are replacing another manufacturer's very problematic cameras. We had a demo of the in-car and body and they seemed solid. Most anything would be an improvement over what we have now.
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  6. #6
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Maryland
    Thanks, guys. This is the type of feedback I hoped to get. The department purchased the things so I guess we're stuck with them for the immediate future, much like the P1 CAD system (a county system with which we're stuck), the NeoGov evaluation system, and the FNS-9.

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