For the past year or so, many people have been calling for all law enforcement agencies to be required to wear body cameras.
The topic is gaining speed in the legislature, according to Manitowoc County Sheriff Dan Hartwig.
“Nothing has been put into place yet,” he told Seehafer News, “but they are looking to mandate body cams on all law enforcement by 2025.”
While the upfront cost of purchasing the equipment is a major expense, Hartwig explained there is more to it than that.
“The expensive portion is if you go with cloud storage, which is subscription-based,” Hartwig explained.
While that would seem like the better option, Hartwig said using that would be “held to someone else’s whims as far as your data.”
The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office is looking into using an internal storage system, which would require “upgrading your servers, and having all the computer capacity to run video redaction.”
Body cameras are still a relatively new technology, so there aren’t very many laws on the books regarding what can and cannot be shown in open record requests.
Unlike written reports, where names and ages can be redacted for minors or victims, it is much more difficult to redact an individual’s face, body shape, and voice.
Someone would have to be paid to perform these redactions, adding to the overall cost of the cameras.
