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mojo84 wrote:A-R, I too have enjoyed and appreciate the debate. Please don't think I think the officers or departments want to buy "toys" vs body cams. I do believe some things are cooler than others and human nature leads us to the cool and exciting. I also think the budget argument and lack of data storage are just an excuses.

How do the departments handle dash cam videos now? I know of some that automatically upload when the car arrives at the station to the departments server or cloud. Once uploaded it is kept for a period of time. Then it is written over after thirty, sixty, ninety etc days ( not sure how long). If they need the video, they can go in and save the part of it they need and process it as evidence with their chain of custody procedures.

Complaining it isn't feasible due to budget constraints and data storage issues is just a red herring being thrown out there by cops that don't want the cameras on them as they don't want the videos used against them. I think the video will corroborate their story and vindicate them more often than hurt them. I believe cops do much more right than they do bad.

One final argument, they are already doing what they say they can't to do. They have dash cams. For example, Boerne PD has an MRAP. The money they spend on upkeep and maintenance of that piece of military equipment that I am not aware of them using once would fund the body cams for the entire department.

Again, I encourage you to contact your county auditor or city treasurer and request a copy of their budgets. You'll be surprised how you're money is being spent. I can share my FOIA request with you if you would like.

Here's another example of priorities that I've mentioned. Kendall County has spent several million dollars buying land for wilderness parks that get little use. That would find lots of body cameras, data storage and cool equipment.