BOARDMAN TWP., Ohio - It's been years in the making and a must for many police departments across the country. Communities like Boardman Township are now starting to use body cameras in officer's every day work routines. 

Boardman Police Chief Todd Werth and and Township Trustee Larry Moliterno agree the cameras will benefit the township's officers and bring a new layer of transparency to the department.

"Body cameras are just a no brainer for us," Moliterno said. 

After about 4 years of planning, finding the best brand, and training their officers, Boardman Township's police department started using body cameras in their daily routine on Monday, January 24. 

"We ended up testing three different vendors," Chief Werth said to 21 News.  "We did our due diligence, not only looking at the cost of all the other vendors out there but really what the impact on our system would be."

The department is using Motorola WatchGuard cameras that work well with their pre-existing software. They are using cloud based storage and more advanced technology than what was even available when the township first looked into body cameras 4 years ago. 

"It's going to provide better safety for our officers, transparency in the community and also a sense of accountability," Moliterno added.

Funding through several grants gets the township 43 body cameras costing over $200,000. Every officer assigned their own camera.

"Officers able to just pick up their body camera and go immediately out on the street," Chief Werth said. 

The cameras will constantly be in standby mode. An officer must turn them on every time they are at a scene.

"It's constantly cycling through a recording," Chief Werth explained. "When the officer actually presses the button, it starts that capture mode. Once I press that button, it'll go back and recapture the 30 second before, video and audio and it'll continue until I hit that button twice."

A look back feature allows video footage to be viewed even if an officer doesn't record.

"It takes that stress off the officer of generally hitting the button and not hitting the button," Werth said. 

Chief Werth and Moliterno say this benefits both community and their officers.

"The great part about our officers is that they don't mind being held accountable," Werth said. "We know they're out there doing a good job every day. They're trained properly. They understand best practices of law enforcement."

"Law-enforcement is based upon evidentiary items," Chief Werth explained. "Whether that's an eyewitness testimony, surveillance video or physical evidence, it's just another aspect of extending that we have the ability to capture those interactions with the public."

Hubbard Township also started using body cameras this month.