Seattle Police by Matthew Zalewski
In a week that seems to be all about putting body cameras on police, the Obama administration has announced $20 million in grants to fund the technology is coming to local police departments.
The grant money is to “respond to the immediate needs of local and tribal law enforcement organizations,” according to the news release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This $20 million block is the first part of the $75 million package introduced by President Obama in December. At that time, Obama’s plan called for “$75 million in funding over three years that could provide up to 50 percent of the funding for a local police department’s body camera and video storage program.”
According to the DOJ, the $20 million will include $17 million in grants for the cameras, $2 million in training and $1 million for development of tools to study best practices. They plan to provide 50 awards to local law enforcement agencies, with a third of them targeted to smaller police departments. The grants require a 50 percent match from the local agencies.
Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton called for more body cameras on police throughout the country, as well, to increase transparency. The Seattle Police have also been experimenting with the cameras and a YouTube channel, for which they just hired a programmer, this week.
