South Fulton police equipped with new technology out in the field

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. - South Fulton police are now equipped with new technology that Chief Keith Meadows says benefit his officers and the community.

Whenever a police officer removes their weapon from their holster, a holster sensor instantly activates that officer's body camera, and the camera starts recording.

Chief Meadows started researching the technology about a year ago.

The chief told FOX 5's Deidra Dukes, "That's really important for us because as you can imagine those instances where an officer has to pull his weapon quickly, they usually forget or are not able to activate their body camera. Having that automatic trigger for that technology is going to be extremely important for us."

All South Fulton Patrol Units, that's approximately 70 percent of officers on the force, now have holster sensors. They started using them this week.

"Right now, when our police officers pull their patrol cars within a certain radius of their emergency 911 calls, their body cameras automatically start recording. When they remove their weapon from their holster their body camera automatically starts recording. If the officer is lying down or not in an upright position, the body camera starts recording. We'll ultimately have the ability to live stream, so we are really excited about the technology we are rolling out."

That technology also includes a new fleet of drones the department recently acquired. They'll be deployed during search and rescue operations and aid in accident reconstruction and evidence collection.

Chief Meadows said, "Right now, we have the ability to do search and rescue with our drones, we have the ability to search for potential suspects.  We also have the ability with those drones to integrate various types of technology."

The drones are equipped with flare  technology that allows officers to search for individuals in wooded areas.

The department is exploring the possibility of integrating those drones with police body cameras.