From Viridian
The Crandall, Texas Police Department has deployed the FACT Duty™ Weapon-Mounted Camera (WMC™) for officers in the field. Police Chief, Dean Winters, and officials from Minnesota-based Viridian Weapon Technologies will give a short news conference on the impact of the new technology. The news conference will take place Wednesday, November 18 at 10:00 AM at the Crandall Police Department, 104 E. Trunk, Crandall, TX 75114.
Crandall’s announcement follows other recent departmental adoptions in Texas. Earlier this year, a high-profile officer-involved shooting (OIS) trial in Vernon, Texas included footage from Viridian’s gun camera as the key evidence. The jury convicted the defendant of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a public official. Viridian’s WMC captured footage that clearly showed the defendant pointing a sawed-off shotgun at Vernon Police Corporal T.J. Session who was wounded in the ensuing exchange of gunfire. The Body Camera footage of the incident did not provide this crucial view.
One agency in California has also deployed the cameras.
“The FACT Duty Weapon Mounted Camera literally provides a lens to view the actions of law enforcement that has not been available before with other types of cameras,” said Chief Winters. “When Viridian first came on the scene a few years ago we knew that it was on the leading edge of law enforcement technology. After the recent trial in Vernon, Texas, where the video captured by an officer’s FACT Duty camera during an Officer Involved Shooting, where the officer was shot by a suspect, it became very apparent that it was technology that was important for us to have as part of our department.
“Although the Crandall Police Department is a small agency, we have always tried to be on the forefront in the use of technology in day-to-day operations,” Chief Winters continued. “Crandall was the first agency in Kaufman County to have officers wearing Body Cameras, long before anyone really understood the reasons why they were needed. But for us, not only was it a way to capture evidence in the field, we felt it added a layer of transparency to our department. Now that our officers are utilizing Viridian’s FACT Duty Weapon Mounted Camera, we want the community that we serve to know that their trust and our transparency is paramount, and to show how important it is to us, we are honored to take the extra steps that modern policing requires by adopting the use of the camera system into our department.”
Viridian has created an important category for law enforcement with the introduction of the Weapon-Mounted Camera. This distinctive technology provides an unobstructed view of critical use-of-force events from the end of the firearm, addressing limitations officers can face with body cameras.
“The decision by Chief Winters and many other agencies across the country demonstrates the commitment to transparency made possible by our FACT Duty gun camera,” said Viridian President and CEO, Brian Hedeen. “Viridian’s FACT Duty Camera can provide an unobstructed view that’s often hard to capture with body cameras. Our technology affords officers an evidentiary tool that can capture the critical evidence of a subject’s actions.”
The highly advanced WMC employs a 1080p full-HD digital camera with a microphone and 500 lumen tactical light. Viridian’s proprietary INSTANT-ON® technology automatically activates the camera and microphone whenever the officer draws the firearm from its holster. Not only does this eliminate risk of failure to manually turn on the camera during a critical event, but it also keeps the officer from fumbling with cumbersome equipment.