Bellingham Police label body cams a success
Posted April 16, 2017 9:58 am.
Last Updated April 16, 2017 10:17 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BELLINGHAM, WA (NEWS 1130) – Vancouver Police are not wearing body cameras, and it doesn’t appear that will change anytime soon, with price being part of the problem. But a nearby police department believes the cameras are worth every cent.
In Bellingham, every officer is now wearing a body camera. Police Chief Cliff Cook says at first, there was some resistance, but that’s changed.
“Some of the officers who were critical of the program initially became extremely supportive of it. And now if you tried to ask them to go out and work in the field without them they’d pretty much tell you they wouldn’t want to.”
“We’ve had some incidents, since the policy was initiated, that were controversial or a complaint would come and we’d pull up the audio/video tape and demonstrate that the officer did what was right and appropriate.”
Cook believes in about five years, most officers in the US will be wearing body cameras.
“(And) there’s a lot of interest in Canada in body cams.”
But he admits money is an obstacle for many police forces.
“It is a new cost and it’s an ongoing cost.”
Cook points out it’s the data storage that costs so much money, not the actual camera.
You can listen to Tim James’ interview with Police Chief Cliff Cook here.
