Digital Ally shares rise in wake of South Carolina shooting
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of digital video and surveillance technology firm Digital Ally rose on Wednesday in heavier-than-average trading, after a white police officer was caught on video fatally shooting a 50-year-old black man in South Carolina. While the recording of the South Carolina shooting was captured by a bystander on an unspecified device, many view the body cameras made by Digital Video as a means of increasing law-enforcement accountability. The company also received heavy interest last year in the aftermath of the fatal shooting by a police officer of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. The stock rose 12.7 percent to $14.30. Just over 1 million shares exchanged hands by late afternoon trading, well above its 50-day average volume of about 387,000 shares. In December, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged funds for the purchase of body-worn cameras; subsequently, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a plan to equip 7,000 police officers with body cameras in 2015. Image Sensing Systems, which makes video and radar image processing products, rose 2.3 percent on Wednesday, while Taser International, whose products are viewed as a non-lethal tool for law enforcement, rose 1.9 percent to $24.97. About 254.32 million shares of Digital Ally changed hands over 2014, compared with fewer than 9 million shares in 2013. (Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Alan Crosby)
