Exclusive: Ridealong with Fairfield police as officers test out body cameras

FAIRFIELD (WABC) -- Police in Fairfield, Connecticut, are testing out body cameras, and Eyewitness News was invited for a ridealong to see them in action.

It's an Eyewitness News exclusive.

What appears to be a typical car stop for a driver talking on a cell phone quickly offers a completely different perspective when seen from Officer Evan Kaesmann's body camera.

For the past few months, Fairfield police have been wearing the body cameras and recording interactions between officers and the public.

The device itself is small, about the size of a pager, and it's activated when the officer slides down the lens cover. Kaesmann does it when he gets out of the cruiser.

In the wake of a lawsuit over the NYPD's controversial stop and frisk policy, New York City is in the testing phase of body cameras. But many suburban departments have already taken the plunge, embracing the cameras as another technological tool.

So what do officers think?

"I don't really have any problems with it," Kaesmann said. "I think that it can be definitely beneficial to the officers, as well as people who are responding to calls for service...It has an unbiased view of everything that's happening, whether it's an emergency call or a community service-type call, traffic stop and anywhere in between."

The cameras are about $800 each, and in addition to the cost, there are concerns about reliability and privacy.