GROUP 77
Security Tech & Innovation
If you go into a HomeGoods or HomeSense in New Jersey, don't be surprised to see store workers wearing something more typically associated with a police officer: body cameras.
The owner of the retail stores said that body cameras will be worn to deter thieves. … "I think the jury's still out on this," said Brian Higgins, a former chief of the Bergen County police.
As with police officers, it will help in the case of any store employee accused of misconduct, said Higgins, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
[New Jersey Media Group, 2025]
Brian Higgins is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former police chief and SWAT commander in Bergen County, New Jersey, a metro area of nearly 1 million adjacent to New York City. He believes every unit should wear bodycams.“I don’t know why these units are allowed to be separated out when the standard is using these bodycams,” he said. “We’re getting a lot (bodycam) footage from Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine. Our special forces have them. I don’t know why our police shy away from it. If you’re not doing something wrong, what’s the justification for not having them?” The lone argument that gives him pause, Higgins said, is when police chiefs say they don’t want their special teams' tactics to be known, such as how they execute a search warrant. He’s not sure that’s enough of a justification, though. [Yahoo, 2025]
Paterson police currently do not have such devices, officials said. … Brian Higgins, the former chief of the Bergen County police who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said the devices give law enforcement responders critical information about the layout of a building where a standoff is happening, such as the locations of doors and other rooms. “They provide you with tactical awareness,” said Higgins, who commanded the Bergen County SWAT team for many years. Higgins said the tactical robots represent the latest technology, filling the role that “pole cameras” and “throw phones” used to play in efforts to resolve standoffs.
[Yahoo News, 2024]
Brian Higgins, former Bergen County police chief and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, believes such criminal activity is still relatively infrequent and can be largely avoided with the proper precautions.
Higgins said he does not yet view this type of burglary as a trend, noting, "It's pretty high-tech; you have to know what you're doing." However, he added, "I think you're going to see more of this" as tech-savvy criminals figure out how to counteract the security systems. [Yahoo, 2024]
While some law enforcement agencies have experimented with policies granting them access to constant passive recording data, privacy concerns have rendered the practice uncommon, according to Brian Higgins, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the former police chief of Bergen. It is more typical for departments to program body cameras to overwrite their passive recordings every 30 seconds, he said.Higgins had never heard of a department passively recording video without telling its officers, he said. “I don’t know what reason you would have to have it on all the time and not tell the officer,” he said. “I’d have some serious concerns about privacy.” When agencies use the advanced passive recording capabilities, they usually address them in their body camera policies, Higgins said. Old Saybrook’s policy does not mention the practice. [New England Register, 2023]