A proposal for how the City of Wichita will finance body cameras for its police department has been announced. KMUW’s Sean Sandefur reports…
City officials have announced a proposal for the purchase of body cameras for each officer of the Wichita Police Department.
The plan still needs to be approved by city council members, but includes grounding the city’s police helicopter for all of next year, possible grants, and asset forfeiture from its narcotics unit. The cost of the cameras, their docking stations and IT support during installation totals $927,000. This does not include annual operating costs. Interim Police Chief Nelson Mosley says his department is also developing protocol for using the devices.
“We’re going to look at other agencies similar to our size and how they rolled this out,” Mosley says. “We don’t want to make mistakes. When you roll this out, you want to make sure it’s done the right way.”
Operation of the police helicopter has been limited in recent years due to budget constraints, according to Mosley. For now, the decision to ground the aircraft is only slated for 2015.
Mosley says the decision to purchase body cameras has been “accelerated” by events in Ferguson, Missouri, where the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer has sparked protests and rioting. No footage of the incident has surfaced.
President Obama announced on Monday he’ll pursue federal funding for local police departments to implement body cameras, but the decision requires congressional approval.
Below is the full finance proposal issued by the City of Wichita
