COLO. SPRINGS COPS SLOW TO GET BODY CAMS

colorado springs» The process of equipping nearly 500 Colorado Springs police officers with state-of-the-art body-worn cameras is taking longer than expected.

Full implementation probably won’t be completed until February.

In mid-September, the department started outfitting its officers with the technology and said 475 officers would be equipped this month. As of Friday, only 88 officers had been outfitted with the cameras.

The process has been slowed by the department’s need to improve network stability that will handle the high volume of data expected to come from the cameras, said Cmdr. Pat Rigdon, the program’s supervisor. “This is nearing completion and we plan to go to full implementation starting in mid-January,” he added.

A uniform change is another reason for the delays.

Colorado Springs police officers wear a French blue color that wasn’t immediately available, “so we have had to work with the uniform vendor to acquire what we needed,” Rigdon said. “In addition, the uniforms have to be modified to accommodate the camera.”