Frostburg State University Campus Police Using Body Cameras

Chief Cynthia Smith said in a statement Monday that the cameras, which are won on the chest, provide transparency and an independent perspective of events.

Smith says officers will use the cameras to preserve evidence when responding to calls for service, initiating citations or arrests, and during informal, residential visits known as "knock-and-talk" visits.

She says officers may turn the cameras off in certain situations, such as sexual assault investigations, to protect a victim's privacy.

Smith says officers will tell people when they are being recorded.

She says campus police received the cameras last year but waited until this year to deploy them, following practices and policies developed by the Maryland Police Training Commission.