Poll: Are Body Cameras For Local Police Worth The Expense?
Since the deadly police shooting of Michael Brown more than a month ago police departments here, and elsewhere, are now considering body cameras. For example:
A panel of Minneapolis officials has approved a $170,000 pilot program to place body cameras on 36 police officers.
A Minneapolis City Council committee authorized the pilot Monday. It directed city employees to report back on questions including how the success of the six- to nine-month pilot can be measured and independently reviewed.
The city has pledged another $1.1 million for the camera program next fall. The full council is set to finalize the pilot plans later this week. (CBS Minnesota)
The cameras are $300-$400 each, but storage & management systems are costly. It adds up:
The cost to outfit the city’s police force with body cameras will come with a price tag of $1.2 million — and that’s just the start.
Richard Gray, the city’s public safety director, told an aldermanic committee on Tuesday morning that the department would need an additional $500,000 to cover labor and maintenance costs, plus an increase in the department’s annual budget of about $800,000 to $900,000 for replacement and maintenance costs. (stltoday)
As the headline indicates, the poll question this week is: Are body cameras for local police worth the expense?
— Steve Patterson
Body cameras are worth the expense if in the future they eliminate the possibility of controversy in situations like those in the Brown case. As long as police are charged with the task of keeping order in a segment of the STL community (others as well) that appears to defy authority, civil order, respect for human dignity, respect for law enforcement, it is absolutely imperative that police are equipped with a device that will unequivocally document their actions when it becomes necessary to do so. There’ll be no need to second-guess sworn testimony from so-called witnesses, no need to dream up stories of sainthood about the perp. And similarly, there will be no opportunity for law enforcement officials to hide from/prove the truth about their own actions in an incident. The cash outlay will produce win-win results–immediately. Who knows: it may even eliminate the perceived need for looting and willful destruction of private property. In the end, the purchase of cameras will be cheaper than rebuilding a community after a group of thugs destroys it.
I just hope the pro-body camera crowd remembers their feelings on this the next time public cameras are considered and the “infringement on civil liberties” conversation begin anew.
Both systems are intended to protect the public and provide a visual record in order to prescribe justice and prevent crime. Curious how many calling for body cams are against the presence/use of public ones…