All 700 St. Louis County Police Officers Will Wear Body Cameras By Early 2020

St. Louis County is about to become the largest police department in Missouri to equip all of its officers with body cameras.

“I think this is an example of how we’re forward-looking and how we try to set an example for law enforcement in the state,” Police Chief Jon Belmar said in an interview on Wednesday updating the status of the body camera plans.

The County Council approved $5 million for the cameras and unlimited storage space on July 2. Funding for the five-year contract comes from a half-cent sales tax increase for public safety that voters approved in November 2017.

The department ran a body camera pilot program with 75 officers in 2014, just after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer. Belmar says the county had to wait for funding to be able to expand the program.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/all-700-st-louis-county-police-officers-will-wear-body-cameras-early-2020