Note: Please read this column through to the end before you start complaining…
Police cruisers aren’t cheap and have to be replaced every few years. By the time you factor in lights, sirens, radios and other related equipment, you are looking at tens of thousands of dollars for each vehicle. Plus, there is the cost to fill them up with fuel. Maybe we should do away with most police cruisers, and just let officers walk their beats most of the time instead. I mean, in a small city it is potentially doable.
Police officer bulletproof vests or body armor, which also has to be replaced periodically, isn’t cheap either. In order to save a few bucks maybe we should do away with them and save the expense. I mean, most officers don’t get shot at during their careers, or at the very least they don’t get shot at very often. Right?
Firearms for officers, such as their handguns and rifles, cost a pretty penny too. Plus, you have to buy ammunition for those firearms. Economic times are tight. Maybe we should save a few bucks by sending officers out there with their lone Barney Fife bullet and hope for the best. I mean, statistics show that most officers never even fire their guns in the line of duty during their careers.
Yes, the above scenarios to save money are ridiculous by any objective measure, and something that you would never see even the stingiest, penny pinching politician suggest.
Using any objective measure, police cruisers, bulletproof vests, police firearms and ammunition are all essential equipment for law enforcement officers in the 21st Century. So are computers and less-than-lethal options, such as Tasers, which deliver an electric jolt instead of a bullet to stop a suspect.
No less essential in this day and age are police officer body cameras, which have gotten a lot more discussion locally after the shooting of a Lily man in his home two days before Christmas by the London Police Department.
Afterwards, it was revealed that there was no body camera footage of the incident because the London Police Department ended its use of body cameras in March 2023 due to the aging of the department’s existing equipment and the cost to obtain new equipment.
According to published reports, London Mayor Randall Weddle announced last week that the department is getting new body cameras at a cost of about $450,000 over five years, but for many people it is too little, too late.
In fairness to small police departments, I get the desire to try and save a few bucks. The cost to purchase and maintain body cameras and store the video footage isn’t cheap.
A July 2020 piece by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, which was covering a legislative panel hearing, indicated that the cost of body cameras typically run between $1,500 for a low cost camera to $5,000 for a more advanced body camera.
The Daviess County Sheriff testified in 2020 that the major expense is hidden in recurring costs related to storage, maintenance and the additional staff to manage body cameras and their footage, which he estimated at $40,000 annually in addition to the $50,000 it would cost off the bat to equip his agency with body cameras.
Even though it isn’t cheap, ALL police departments should be required to equip ALL officers with body cameras that record interactions with the public, such as all traffic stops and serving all arrest warrants and all search warrants, like the one London police were attempting to serve on Dec. 23.
In this day and age, body cameras are essential equipment for police just like guns, radios and handcuffs.
Body camera footage protects both the police officers and the public. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys like it.
The camera provides an objective account of an incident.
It is great evidence.
If a police officer is accused of excessive force, we get to see whether that happened. If a suspect is pulled over for drunk driving and is staggering and slurring their speech as they get out of their vehicle, we get to see that.
82nd Rep. Nick Wilson recently announced after the London police shooting, that he will likely introduce a bill to require police officers to wear body cameras. My biggest suggestion to Wilson is to include some funding to help small agencies with limited budgets pay for these cameras, maintain them and to pay for the storage of the video.
Even if Frankfort doesn’t pay for it, ALL police departments need to have body cameras for ALL officers. It is a necessary expense for modern law enforcement just like guns, bullets, radios and handcuffs.
