The Omaha City Council on Tuesday gave their stamp of approval for the Omaha Police Department to purchase 460 new automatically activated body cameras.
The department currently has 115 uniformed officers equipped with the cameras. Omaha Police Deputy Chief Kerry Neumann says it's a win-win situation for the City. "Not only does it protect our citizens, but it also protects the officers as well."
The cameras will be supplied by Axon Enterprise, Inc. and will cost nearly $1.4 million. The cost is being taken care of through a donation from the Omaha Police Foundation.
Neumann says new technology will allow the cameras to be activated automatically. “That includes when an officer turns on their emergency lights on a cruiser, any time an officer has their in-car video camera turned on and any time an officer pulls out a taser."
Neumann says the department will also be piloting a program that starts a camera when an officer pulls a handgun out of a holster.
The cameras can be turned off, but Neumann said it should only be for small things like private conversations among officers or restroom breaks.
“We have policy that our cameras should be on any time we have interaction with citizens, so any time we go to a disturbance call, those cameras are required to be turned on," Neumann says.
The department will roll out the cameras beginning next May when they receive the first 160. Another 150 will be sent by December 2018 and the last 150 by the end of 2019.