As the nationwide push intensifies for police to wear body cameras, states and cities have encountered one consistent roadblock to adopting the technology: the cost.
The price of a single camera ranges widely, from less than $100 to more than $1,000, based on the size of the purchase (larger police departments often get a discount) and whether the deal includes data storage services. But managing and storing the video costs many times the price of the cameras themselves. And because the technology is so new, it’s likely that it will have to be replaced fairly quickly, which would require additional expenditures.
In a survey of 40 police departments by the Police Executive Research Forum conducted last fall and released this year, nearly 40 percent of departments without body cameras cited cost as the primary barrier to using them.
President Barack Obama has called for $75 million in new federal spending to help pay for 50,000 police body cameras for local police departments. States are struggling with whether cameras should be worn all the time and whether the video should be a public record, which also can affect costs. As of April 20, 34 states were considering 117 bills related to police body cameras, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). So far, only a handful of states have figured out how to pay for them.
“They (cameras) can be a really great tool if implemented correctly,” said Lindsay Miller, a senior research associate at the police forum, a membership organization of police and government officials, academics and others who work in the field. “It’s not as easy as sticking a camera on an officer and sending them out in the field.”
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5 comments:
I call bs, managing and storing the data is relative. Not every second has to be stored. Only those where there is the potential for questions to arise before during or after a stop. of course we know our government will want every second of our lives and interaction recorded for posterity.
No matter how much is spent on this, the one camera that saw the whole thing will suddenly have a software glitch, and yet another jackboot will keep his job.
Waste of money, if you ask me.
States struggle to pay for this?
Beoahahahahahahahahah
Might work to some extent but people are still going to see what they want to see.
With Gray so many were seeing that he was injured prior to entering the van. Others saw passively resisting.
States Attorney in charging said injury occurred sometime AFTER the 2nd stop.
And then there's the video of the girl saying she saw the "Caucasian" officer shoot the guy in the back. Never happened. They will say whatever fits their agenda and claim the body camera videos were altered.
You can not win with these people.
They have huge difficulties with telling the truth.
Everyone remembers the not so long ago Charleston SC case where it so convincingly looks like the officer shot a man for just running away.
The Baltimore mess has taken the spotlight off of that case but it is falling apart.
Scott (victim) took the taser and fired it at Slager (cop) you can see it if you go frame by frame Slager is holding Scott's right hand with his left hand Slager is reaching for his own gun with his right hand the only thing you cannot see is Scott's left hand or the taser which ends up bouncing several feet behind Slager. It was another rush to judgement to appease the mob. The prosecutor has stated that it will probably not meet the requirements for capital murder. This is the start of her removing the egg from her face.
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