GREEN BAY, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) -- Police officers in Green Bay may get body cameras soon. That’s the hope of mayor Eric Genrich and police chief Andrew Smith. They think the cameras would be good for the department and the community.
Smith used body cameras before coming to Green Bay. He spent 27 years with the LAPD.
“Love ‘em. These body cameras will capture much much more of what our officers are doing. More importantly, of what a suspect is doing or what an individual is doing while the officers are talking to him,” says Smith.
The department has looked into buy body cameras in the past. Outfitting a force of about 180 officers won’t be cheap.
“We’ve heard quotes in the millions of dollars range to outfit the Green Bay police department,” says Smith.
Genrich says some residents have asked for body cameras.
“To have everything on video and available so that we’re sure of the story that’s being told by our citizens, by accounts being given by our officers. I think that gets us to a much better place as a community,” says Genrich.
Smith and Genrich cite improvements in technology as well as recent records retention guidance from the state legislature as positive reasons to move forward in the process of getting cameras.
“We want to make sure we’re doing it right. We want to make sure that we get the right system that’s going to be robust enough and long-lasting enough so that we don’t have to replace something right away,” says Smith.
“There’s a lot of decisions to be made but it’s something that we’re going to be talking about a lot in the next couple months,” says Genrich.
The mayor would like to have a plan in front of the common council this fall.
“It could be a phased effort, depending on what the cost looks like. But we felt like it was the appropriate time to say, 'Yes, this is something that we’re moving forward with.' We’re going to make this a priority within our capital budgets in the years to come and make that commitment,” says Genrich.
“I think it’s going to happen sooner rather than later and I’m hoping we can really get moving forward on it quickly,” says Smith.