One hundred Montgomery County police officers will start wearing body cameras in July in a pilot program that will likely last through the end of 2015.
The County Council on Monday gave its preliminary approval to the next fiscal year’s police budget, which includes $622,379 for the body-worn camera program that would be a first for the police department.
“The experience we’ve had with cameras in our in-car videos and with other body-worn camera programs we’ve looked at does demonstrate that police officers are doing what they’re supposed to do how they’re supposed to do it 99.9 percent of the time,” Police Chief Thomas Manger told the council. “I have no doubt that’s going to be our experience.”
Manger didn’t elaborate on how the body camera would be assigned, but said he’s already heard from officers willing to volunteer to wear them.
More than $400,000 of the pilot program's cost will pay for storing video.
Manger said the concern he and police officials around the country share is about the cost of processing public information requests related to the camera footage.
“There are police departments around this country that have started body-worn camera programs that have ended their body-worn camera program because they could not address the public information issue,” Manger said.
Releasing the videos involves privacy concerns, especially for people who might have been captured in the video but who aren’t involved in the interaction with an officer.
Manger said it can take one minute to redact one second of video, meaning making the proper redactions for an hour-long segment of body camera video could take weeks or even months.
“They say that for every 100 cameras, they need one attorney full time and then additional staff full time for the redaction,” Manger said.
The department hopes to expand the body-worn camera program in January, though it will also watch the work of a state commission charged with developing a statewide body camera policy.
The department will buy Taser Axon Body cameras and Manger promised councilmembers that all 100 would be used.
