The Boise City Council has approved the purchase of 250 body cameras to be equipped on Boise Police officers.
Currently, BPD only records audio when responding to an emergency or conducting a stop, however, the new cameras will record video from the perspective of the officer’s chest.
Eventually, the cameras will be worn by every uniformed officer during their shift.
“There's a need to understand what policing is about, there's a need to understand what police officers are going through, but there's also a need to have confidence and faith in your organization and in the police officers you have.” Deputy Chief Eugene Smith from the Boise Police Department explained. “We believe that on-body cameras will only strengthen the relationships we have in the community as we all recognize our officers do a great job every day."
The first cameras will arrive in May from Arizona based company Taser International which not only supplies the cameras, but manages the software and cloud storage for the footage.
