By Elizabeth Miller
More than one-thousand of Cleveland’s police officers have been outfitted with body cameras since their launch in February. The city’s Deputy Chief of Police presented an update on the body cams during a City Council Safety Committee meeting on Wednesday.
During the first nine months of this year, the number of citizen complaints against police officers decreased 40% compared to last. There's no confirmation that the decrease was due to the addition of body cameras, but Deputy Chief of Police Wayne Drummond said that during earlier pilot programs using body cams, Cleveland Police officers noticed a difference in the demeanor of city residents.
"When the officers encountered individuals in the community that were either violent or things were going to turn to a bad situation, once they realized they were being recorded, their behaviors changed to the positive," said Drummond.
According to a contract obtained by the Associated Press, the city is paying Taser International $3.3 million over five years to buy the cameras and store the footage.