Quote Originally Posted by “Earle Kimel”
NORTH PORT — NPPD will pursue a leasing program to equip 80 officers with body cameras, which will probably happen in 2020. Cameras would be issued to all patrol and specialty units.

The National Body Camera Research Forum found that 35 percent of the 17,985 law enforcement agencies in the United States use body cameras.

In addition to increased public accountability, body cameras typically result in reduced false complaints, evidence requests and an increase in plea deals. Body camera footage could also provide counterpoints to civilian smartphone videos that may not record all events of an incident.

A five-year lease program is anticipated to cost about $151,000 per year, or a total of $755,000, with unlimited cloud storage, and camera upgrades every 2.5 years.

Much of the discussion hinged on right-to-privacy and public records laws. HIPPA laws cover camera footage, so when fire and rescue personnel are treating injured people, that footage would be exempt, as would footage of juveniles.
Full story:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20...ameras-by-2020