State needs to support body cameras

A nationwide survey recently found the New York State Police are one of the few large-scale city and state police agencies across the U.S. that do not use body-worn cameras. Now, the legitimate question must be asked: Should the state contribute funding for body cameras?

As the officials with the authority and accountability to make sure the state police have the tools to do their job, state Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are the people to answer that question.

Evidence from police body cameras has cleared officers of wrongdoing, uncovered misconduct and painted a larger picture of what happened during high-stakes incidents. The offices of attorney general and governor are interdependent on this matter: James’ office was tasked with investigating officer-involved deaths of unarmed civilians as part of a 2015 executive order signed by Cuomo.

In the Twin Counties, the Hudson Police Department is working on becoming the first full-time police agency to have its officers utilize body cameras. The village of Chatham equipped its part-time police with the cameras several years ago. Greene County Sheriff-elect Peter Kusminsky said Monday he will be looking into body cameras for sheriff’s deputies.

James’ office is using drug forfeiture money to fund body cameras at local departments in the state. On Nov. 1, James allocated $163,000 to the Rochester Police Department for 100 body camera systems.

But the biggest hurdle for state police is cost. With more than 5,000 officers, the state police is the second largest law enforcement agency in New York and the ninth largest in the nation.

The question of funding body cameras raises a legitimate issue, one that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Hudson officials estimate body cameras cost $800 per unit, not including maintenance, data storage, training and fulfilling requests from defense attorneys and the public under the Freedom of Information Law.

As a result many departments in small jurisdictions are dropping or delaying their programs, finding it too expensive to store and manage the thousands of hours of footage. Costs have spiked in recent years in some regions of the country because of new state laws that require long-term storage of video footage.

Picking up on this issue is where James and Cuomo should start as a serious commitment to body-camera funding. It would also show their loyalty to the brave men and women of the state police who protect us every day.