How Bradford Correctional Facility transformed safety and efficiency with HALOS Body Cameras.

Overview

The Bradford County Correctional Facility, a direct supervision jail in Pennsylvania, was the first in their area to implement body-worn cameras. With officers interacting with inmates throughout their entire shift, they faced significant challenges with their outdated body camera system, including poor battery life, durability issues, and ineffective evidence management. By switching to HALOS Body Cameras, the facility enhanced officer safety, improved evidence collection, and reduced maintenance costs, all while benefiting from HALOS' subscription-based model. 

Problem

At Bradford Correctional Facility, maintaining accountability and ensuring officer safety were becoming increasingly difficult due to their outdated body cam system. Officers often faced dangerous situations without reliable video evidence to support them, as their existing body cameras would frequently fail during critical moments. Battery life was a major issue—cameras would die halfway through an eight-hour shift, leaving incidents undocumented and creating gaps in evidence.

Adding to the frustration was the fragility of the devices. Body cams were jostled, dropped, or exposed to rough handling during altercations with inmates, and they simply couldn’t hold up. Every time a camera broke, staff had to wait for repairs, which were expensive and time-consuming.

Even when footage was recorded, finding and sharing it was a cumbersome task. The facility’s system required staff to manually sift through hours of video, slowing down investigations and delaying responses to external requests for evidence. With frequent breakdowns and high maintenance costs, the facility knew it needed a more robust, efficient, and cost-effective solution.

Solution

To tackle their challenges, Bradford Correctional Facility implemented HALOS Body Cameras, a solution tailored to meet the demands of their environment. The cameras featured 16-hour battery life, ensuring uninterrupted recording throughout entire shifts, and a rugged, durable design capable of withstanding the daily wear and tear of corrections work. High-definition video and audio capture meant incidents were recorded with the clarity needed for effective evidence collection.

The included evidence management platform, HALOS Vault, simplified evidence management by enabling case files to be uploaded in 30-minute increments, allowing staff to easily locate and review critical incidents. The facility benefitted from HALOS’ subscription-based model, which covered maintenance, equipment replacements, and software updates, providing long-term cost predictability and minimal downtime.

Results

Since adopting HALOS, Bradford Corrections has experienced dramatic improvements in multiple areas:

• Enhanced Safety and Accountability: Officers felt more secure, and the visible presence of body cams deterred inmate misconduct.
• Streamlined Evidence Collection: Automatic uploads and cloud-based storage minimised administrative burdens and ensured easy sharing of footage.
• Cost Savings with Minimal Downtime: Repairs and replacements were covered under the subscription, keeping operations running smoothly.
• Community Impact: Bradford's success has encouraged other local correctional facilities and law enforcement agencies to consider similar upgrades.