The Moscow City Council unanimously approved the Moscow Police Department’s (MPD) proposal to purchase body cameras on Aug. 17, after nearly 10 years of tossing the idea around.
“I think the expense always played a role in (the issue being set aside),” Chief of Police James Fry said. “With what is going on across the nation, I think it is our job to step forward and be more transparent and continue to gain trust among our community members and protect our officers as well.”
The initial cost estimate is $130,000 for 32 cameras, licensing, software, technical services and annual digital storage, according to a memorandum from City Supervisor Gary Riedner.
The estimated ongoing cost comes in around $142,000 a year, according to the memo. That estimate includes the cost of repair for two cameras, hiring a digital records management technician, training officers on how to use and care for the cameras and costs for licensing, software and digital storage. Due to the three year warranty on the cameras, one third of the inventory will be replaced annually in order to keep the cameras under coverage at all times.
“I think, even considering the cost, this is a great addition to our community policing efforts,” Anne Zabala, Moscow City Council member, said.
MPD already has cameras in patrol vehicles. Fry said using body cameras in addition to the vehicle cameras will provide next-level transparency between MPD and the community. He said the cameras can be extra evidence as well as adding an element of accountability and extra protection to the officers and those interacting with them.
“When the officers are away from their vehicles, we aren’t really getting recordings with (any information), so it’s going to give us a bigger picture when the officer is away from the car,” Fry said. “I think it’ll definitely be a transparency piece for the police department.”
The cameras will be contracted from Watch Guard, the same company the vehicle cameras are from, allowing for easy connections between the camera system the department already uses and the new cameras.
“The nice thing about these camera systems is if (officers) are on a traffic stop, it also interacts with the camera that is in the car, so we can actually pull footage from the car camera and the body camera at the same time,” Fry said. “Basically, it shows an up close view plus a back view.”
Fry said the department is discussing a policy for how the body cameras will be used and worn, which includes policy on when the cameras should be recording. More details will be released when the plans are closer to being finalized, he said.
All officers on duty would be wearing body cameras, including officers on the University of Idaho Moscow campus, Fry said.
“I don’t think the community will see any significant change in anything, with what we do and how we do it,” Fry said. “We’ve had in-car videos for three years, and we recorded a lot of things that have taken place over the years with those. This will just give us one more tool to be more open and it always helps with your professionalism when you bring in technology to enhance what you do at your job.”
This article has been edited to correct formatting errors.
Anteia McCollum can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @antxiam5.