WACO — Waco Police held a press conference Thursday morning to announce its officers would begin wearing body cameras.
Sgt. Patrick Swanton said the department issued 250 cameras which covers 85 to 90 percent of the force.
Chief Ryan Holt said WPD is one of the last law enforcement agencies in the area to start using body cameras.
"I think we were purposeful in slowing down a little bit and waiting for the technology to mature," said Holt. "We're certainly glad we did. I just think it's a tool that our community expects us to have."
Holt said the department is leasing the cameras. The cameras cost the city 353-thousand dollars for the first year and 283-thousand dollars for every year after that.
Holt said the city council already approved the purchase for the first two years.
From a regular traffic stop to a DWI arrest, officer Garen Bynum said he makes a lot of contact with citizens on a day to day basis. He said these new body worn cameras are a relief for him and they guys he works with.
"There's been several arrests that I've had whether it be a weapons arrest or something like that, that this would have really been nice to have."
All police officers will have body cameras including detectives and plain clothes officers. They will also be worn during pursuits, and emergency responds. The body cameras will require manual operation so the officer has to actually turn the camera on. There are times when it will come on automatically and that's when an officer pulls out a taser
"This is not an end all solve all," said Sgt. Patrick Swanton. "One thing we want to make sure we remind our public is that when you view a five or ten second clip of a body worn camera, that doesn't tell the whole story."
Waco police say it's a policy violation if an officer alters or deletes original recordings.
We want good quality officers here at Waco PD, and we want our community to feel safe with us and trust us," said Swanton. "We deal with life and death everyday and we want our community to believe in us."
