Charkit Chemical Corp. of Norwalk recently donated funds toward the purchase of 35 body cameras to be used by trained members of the Norwalk Police Department.
Charles Hinnant, Charkit president, announced his company would foot half the $50,000 bill for the camera program.
Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, a Democrat, said he was happy with the equipment upgrade for the department.
“This is really a major step in the right direction for the city of Norwalk, the police department and policing in general,” Rilling said. “There has been a human cry, if you will, for methods of being able to gather data that will help police officers.”
The mayor said the cameras protect both citizens and police officers.
Hinnant spoke at the kickoff of the Body Camera Program earlier this month.
“This is part of our company policy to be good corporate neighbors and public citizens. We call it ”˜responsible distribution”™ and are pretty active in the community,” he said. “We reached out to the police department to see what we could contribute to and, about 30 days later, they came back with a suggested proposal. We”™re pleased that we could do it.”
According to Rilling and Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik, each of the 35 cameras is shaped like a pager and is clipped to the officer”™s shirt or motorcycle helmet to be turned on when an officer receives a duty call. At the end of a shift, the cameras are placed in a charging station, which automatically saves film files in a cloud storage unit and clears the memory from the portable unit. Officers may not delete footage; it can only be accessed by Deputy Chief Susan Zecca, who will randomly pull videos to make certain everything is in correct working order.
Footage will be held for at least 30 days, longer in those cases that involve the use of force.
“Aside from documenting an arrest, the body cameras serve as a safeguard to reduce civil suits and to protect officers from unwarranted complaints,” Cheif Kulhawik said. “This is the start of something new. It”™s a positive program.”
Charkit, founded in 1982, offers products to the imaging, personal care, food, flavor and fragrance, water treatment, metal treatment and pharmaceutical industries as well as to chemical producers. Its affiliated manufacturing entities, Arran Chemical Company and Optima Chemical Group, offer a wide range of custom sourcing, manufacturing, technical assistance and product development services.
