A total of 108 law enforcement agencies across Ohio have been awarded grant funds to cover costs associated with body cam programs, according to Governor Mike DeWine’s office.
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Ohio police agencies will soon be eligible to receive $5 million in new funding for body cameras and related equipment, according to Gov. Mike DeWine (R).
Many law-enforcement organizations in the Buckeye State have wanted to equip their officers with video recorders but costs have reportedly proved prohibitive for many localities. This led DeWine to launch the Ohio Body-Worn Camera Grant Program which awarded its first $4.7 million in January.
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At a Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday, representatives discussed the governor’s requested 40-percent state-police funding increase with department officials.
The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) received $629,342,000 this fiscal year. In a budget proposal unveiled last month, Governor Tom Wolf (D) asked the Republican-run General Assembly to fund the agency at $925,599,000 (in combined state and federal dollars). The governor, however, anticipates that PSP funding can be kept flat over the four fiscal years after next year.
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Border agents will be issued body-worn cameras in an effort to be more transparent, Customs and Border Protection announced Wednesday.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) expects to issue around 6,000 body-worn cameras by the end of 2021 as part of the agency’s new Incident-Driven Video Recording Systems program, according to the announcement.
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The City of Virginia Beach is requiring police officers to turn on body cameras as soon as they are on their way to a call, according to an April 29 video released by the city. Additionally, the Virginia Beach Police Department is in the process of adding switches to officers’ gun holsters to automatically turn their cameras on when the gun is drawn, with an implementation goal of July. Their tasers have a device that activates recording on all nearby officers’ cameras as soon as the taser and camera are turned on.
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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s (D) office is getting more funding, after the Board of Supervisors adopted a budget for 2022 on Tuesday, according to the Tysons Reporter. The budget includes $8 million for Descano’s office, about 27 percent more than $6.3 million for fiscal year 2021. But that’s far less than the $19.1 million budget Descano has said his office needs.
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Protesters gathered outside Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s office Tuesday night wanting answers to why the city hasn’t implement body cameras on its police officers yet. They want cameras to be on Metro police officers by January, WPLN reported. People expressed their frustration by shouting “three years, three mayors, still no cameras.” This referred to previous mayors not adding these cameras to the city’s budget. Back in 2016, then-Mayor Megan Barry promised she would fund body cameras in the city’s budget. However, the body cameras did not make it in Nashville’s budget. This summer former Mayor David Briley signed a deal with the Metro Police Department to roll out the cameras, but it stalled because he lost re-election to Cooper in September. The Metro Police Department scheduled to buy body cameras two weeks ago. However, Cooper put a stop to this plan after Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Justin Wilson told Metro Council to fix Nashville’s budget problems. If the city’s budget problems are not fixed, the state could become involved Wilson warned. “None of us want to see that happen,” he said. “ You don’t want someone from the state capital to come and tell you how to run…
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