By Bob Stewart

The Philadelphia Police department has begun its body camera pilot program in the 22nd district, which covers Temple. On Dec. 1, 30 officers and one sergeant volunteered to start wearing the cameras and help the department select the best model.

“We chose the 22nd district because it is one of our busiest districts,” said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. “Whatever issues may come up as a result of having body-worn cameras we’ll find out pretty quickly here.”

The officers will try out six different models of body cameras. One model features a front-facing screen so subjects can see what the officer is recording.

Lieutenant Thomas McLean said the picture and audio quality falls below the level of the average smartphone but manufacturers try to improve the equipment about every six months.

McLean said the department is still trying to figure out what Temple students can expect from the system.

“We’re new at this,” McLean said. “We really haven’t had a big weekend where we’ve been out interacting with the Temple students. So this is new ground … but if a crime is being committed obviously we’re going to record it as evidence.”

The main reason for the pilot program is to determine the the most cost-efficient equipment. The cameras range from $300 to $1000, but file storage fees can be high. Taser, one of the manufacturers being tested, charges $40 per camera per month for storage.

The feedback from officers will also help determine who gets the contract. Some of the models are large and difficult to secure to a uniform, which includes a radio, badge, and bullet-proof vest.

“If I have it on my shoulder, it’s [only secured by] a clip,” said Officer Lisa Figueroa. “If I’m struggling with someone, if someone grabs me … it [may] fall.”

If students have concerns about potentially being on camera, McLean said they are not alone.

“[Officers] don’t want to get in any kind of trouble,” McLean said. “It’s a new technology. They don’t want to have a slip of the tongue or a uniform violation … something that they normally wouldn’t get in trouble for but now it’s documented.”

“No one likes being on camera,” McLean added. “Everyone’s behavior changes. It makes you so uncomfortable, even though you have nothing to hide. It’s no fun under the bright light. It’s a permanent record for what you say and do.”

Bob Stewart can be reached at robert.stewart@temple.edu or on Twitter @bstew74

Temple’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved the allotment of $3.5 million to match donation for endowed scholarships in the Fox School of Business.

Moshe Porat, Fox’s dean, wrote in a September memo attached to the board meeting’s agenda that the school had a $7.5 million surplus which came from a tuition differential – in other words, higher tuition than most of Temple’s other schools and colleges – that was first implemented in 2007. The surplus later grew to $8.25 million.

According to a Fox press release, the differential stemmed from a need to add faculty, advisers and new technology quickly, in order to accommodate the growing demand for attending the school. While in-state tuition for a lower-division undergraduate in the College of Liberal Arts is $14,006, Fox students in the same financial category are charged $18,084 before financial aid.

Of the surplus, $3.5 million will be used for matching endowed scholarships, so potential donors can be reined in with the promise that donations greater than $25,000 to scholarship funds will be matched by the university. In total, $7 million will be added to the scholarship fund for the school.

Five new professorships will be offered as well, Porat said in a statement released to The Temple News.

In the memo, Porat wrote that he was requesting new professorships since Fox’s six were already occupied.

“In an extremely competitive landscape of the Top 50 quality business schools, our best faculty members are constantly being recruited to other schools with offers of chairs and professorships,” Porat wrote. “The only tool we have in our war chest is to be able to offer them named professorships to stay in the Fox School.”

The professorships will be named after deceased former presidents of the university, including Charles Beury, Millard Gladfelter, Paul Anderson and Marvin Wachman, the namesake of academic buildings on Main Campus.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@temple.edu or on Twitter @JBrandt_TU.

SEPTA Key, the organization’s new smart card system that allows its subway, bus, and trolley riders to pay by debit or credit card, will begin testing this month, the Associated Press reported.

Several computerized kiosks, turnstiles, and fare boxes have appeared in subway and trolley stations and on vehicles, which allow riders to pay with a debit or credit card, and also through microchipped bank cards or a cell phone app.

The new Key cards – which won’t be fully available until 2015 for subway, bus, and trolley services and 2016 for Regional Rail – will mean the end for SEPTA tokens, which are still used by 22 percent of riders, according to SEPTA officials from the AP story.

Philadelphia is one of the last major U.S. cities still using tokens in its public transit system. Boston stopped selling them in 2006, and New York stopped in 2003, fully switching over to their current CharlieCard and MetroCard systems, respectively.

Steve Bohnel can be reached at steven.bohnel@temple.edu or on Twitter @Steve_Bohnel.