WORCESTER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) —Worcester’s city manager said the city would like to equip their police department with body cameras, but they are concerned about the costs during a pandemic.
The Worcester Police Department just completed a body camera pilot program, and an initial report on it showed that it could cost as much as $11 million over five years.
City Manager Edward Augustus said that there is a lot that goes into maintaining the use of body cameras.
“Most of the footage needs to be kept for about three and a half years because that’s the kind of window that somebody might file a suit against the city. That ends up being a huge amount of storage,” Augustus said.
Software to redact the faces of juveniles, as well as paying for people to go through the data are also costs to consider.
Augustus is clear in saying that he would like to do a program like this, but said it doesn’t seem feasible during the pandemic.
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports
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