High cost keeping body cameras off many police
Managing, storing video help push the price of technology
WASHINGTON — 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.”
Put simply, Miller said, “the money has to come from somewhere.”
In New Jersey, legislation enacted last fall requires officers or the vehicles they routinely use in traffic stops to have cameras, either on the officer or on the dashboard in the car.
Giving local governments the option —