The city’s application is for an amount of up to $383,194. It will allow for cameras and cover the initial costs of implementing them into the service of the Springfield Police Division.
Springfield police officers do not have or wear body cameras as officials have cited in the past the high costs of acquiring that equipment. However, officials have expressed interest in implementing body cameras for a number of years.
With the renewal this year of an income tax levy and the possibility of using state funds, the city has been able to move forward with its plans of implementing body cameras, said Springfield Police Chief Lee Graf.
The grant that the city has applied for is part of a program that has $5 million in funding to help local law enforcement agencies invest in body camera equipment and pay for associated expenses.
Graf said they are budgeting to have a camera for every person in the division, which at full staff is 130. However, that does not mean every officer in the division will be wearing a camera all the time, the police chief added.
Graf said uniform patrol would be wearing cameras as well as supervisors who will be working the street. That also includes those answering 911 calls. But he said they are working out the subtle details as to when detectives would be required to wear the cameras and how that would work.
“Me as a chief of police, I probably normally would not have one. But there might be circumstances where I would,” Graf said, noting they are still going over policy as well as how the cameras would be implemented.
The idea is to have those cameras in use by the police division by next year.
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