The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia announced Wednesday it’ll give roughly 165 officers body cameras to wear during a six-month pilot program.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and MPD Chief Cathy Lanier said the program will begin Oct. 1 and will cost roughly $1 million. The six-month pilot program comes a month after the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., but Gray and Lanier stressed this program has been in the works for 18 months and is not a direct result of the Brown shooting.
The District joins other cities across the country who have implemented body cameras for local police forces. Lanier said the $1 million price tag is for the cameras, but also for the servers needed to house the video shot by officers.
