The city of Lexington is working toward a plan that would equip all police officers with body cameras next year. The council’s planning and public safety committee got an update Tuesday.
The goal is to purchase body cams and put them in the hands of Lexington officers by next summer. But, there are still decisions to be made such as how many cameras are needed. Assistant Chief Dwayne Holman says two body cams per officer would allow for off duty use. He says proper management of the data is critical. “We have to make sure that the videos are secure, that they can’t be tampered with," Holman said. "As we move those videos around that’s imperative. We have to make sure we can find what we’re looking for."
The estimated cost for one camera per officer comes to $240,000 with first year storage of data expected to be about $360,000. “Another important feature is personnel to manage and maintain the cameras and other hardware, personnel for open records because we anticipate, just based upon other agencies that they’ll be a tremendous amount of open records requests for these videos,” added Holman.
Council member Jennifer Scutchfield says she worries more about costs associated with additional personnel than the expense for buying cameras or storage of data. Council member Kevin Stinnett called the body cams a much needed step to protect officers, but more so to protect the citizens in the community.?
