LA plans on-body cameras for police

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a plan on Tuesday to equip 7,000 Los Angeles police officers with on-body cameras by next summer.

This makes LA's police department the nation's largest law enforcement agency to move forward with such an ambitious expansion of the technology.

The plan was unveiled at a news conference where Garcetti said he was planning to put forward millions of dollars in next year's budget for the cameras, and that the first wave of more than 800 cameras would roll out as early as January.

"This is a huge step for law enforcement. No other major city is even close to implementation," said Police Chief Charlie Beck.

Los Angeles Police Commission President Steve Soboroff said he estimated the cameras would cost roughly $10 million for the first two to three years and would include technology and software from Arizona-based Taser International.

The announcement follows a year of multiple field tests of the body cameras on a small number of the department's 9,900 officers.

Nationally, officers in one of every six police departments now patrol with tiny cameras on their chests, lapels or sunglasses, and that number is growing.

After an outcry over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, US President Barack Obama recommended spending $74 million to equip another 50,000 officers with them.

Garcetti said the city will be applying for part of those funds.

"What happens in the smallest town in these United States affects all of us. What happens in Ferguson, a town not even the size of one of the police divisions in LA, has affected us, but we're stepping up," Beck said.

Beck said the cameras will not be officially in use until a policy has been drawn up after consultation with stakeholders and the public. It must be approved by the civilian oversight commission and city council.

Hector Villagra, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said: "Body cameras won't solve every problem in policing. But having video of police officers' interactions with the public will help hold officers' accountable for misconduct, quickly exonerate officers who are wrongly accused, and help the public understand the powers we give police and how they use them."

(China Daily 12/18/2014 page10)