In an effort to increase accountability and trust between police and the community, officers in Sacramento are beginning to wear body cameras as part of their regular uniform.
Attached with magnets to a metal plate officers wear under their uniform, the cameras weigh about twice as much as your average iPhone. Officer Matt McPhail said they are in constant operation, passively recording about 30 seconds of video at a time. "Camera's constantly buffering that video," said McPhail. "So if something were happening in front of me and I hadn't yet activated it I could quickly activate the camera, and it would retain that 30 seconds of video prior to me activating."
Sacramento Police Officers are expected to be wearing body cameras by September, 2017. Photo Joe Michaels, KFBK
About 100 of the cameras are already being used by officers, including Leah Antonetti, who has had hers for about two months. According to Antonetti, "when people are having some type of a crisis, and they're beligerent towards, and we show them they're being recorded, their behavior changes quite frequently to the better."All Sacramento Police officers are expected to be regularly wearing cameras by September.
The four-million dollar cost also includes video storage and IT support.