KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police will soon start equipping officers with body cameras after commissioners approved spending $900,000 for the first phase of the program on Tuesday, August 25.
The police department is buying 340 cameras to make sure officers start wearing the monitoring devices.
Police reform protesters were kept out of the commission meeting because of the pandemic. However, it was their demonstrations following the death of George Floyd that prompted the DeBruce Foundation to donate $1 million so that the city could move forward with the stalled project.
The first phase is being paid for with money donated to the Kansas City Police Foundation Eventually the department hopes to have 1,400 body cameras for cops on the streets.
Kansas City police just finished testing 16 cameras in three patrol divisions and the traffic unit.
Commanders say officers liked the cameras. Police were successfully able to publish video captured by the technology directly to local prosecutors.
Police said they continue to test the management system for the videos, including redaction software, which would enable police to edit body camera video.
