LAPD to outfit 7,000 officers with body cameras

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says he plans to implement funding in the 2015-2016 budget to outfit all 7,000 LAPD officers with body cameras. The move comes in the wake of nationwide unrest over the police killings of unarmed black men in New York and Missouri.

Eight-hundred body cameras will be rolled out to officers as early as Jan. 1. At first, the body cameras will go to officers patrolling areas with high police activity.

"These cameras will be a critical step forward that will provide both the officers and Angelenos with recording evidence of their interactions, helping to address the uncertainty and questions that plague so many investigations," Garcetti said. "On the street, things aren't always clear cut. This isn't TV. It's not easily scripted. It's not always easy to tie up the loose ends. So the more facts and evidence we have, the more likely it is that we can get to the truth no matter what happens on the street."

Los Angeles has become the nation's largest law enforcement agency to move forward with body cameras.

Community leaders say after events both in L.A. and in other parts of the country there needs to be more trust in the community.

"The citywide program for body-worn cameras will protect the community as well as the officers wearing them," said Los Angeles Councilman Curren Price.

The cameras will record audio and video, and the files will be stored in a separate location. They're the size of a mobile phone and it clips onto the front of a police officer's uniform. The battery is good for 14 hours.

Some say it's a good tool, but it's not everything.

"I think it's only part of something else, something else being there is still a place for training -- that has to be there," said Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said the body cameras will address concerns about transparency.

"To put forward that every Los Angeles police officer will record every interaction with people whose liberty they have taken away or people we interact with on the street says a lot about how much faith we have in our cops," Beck said.

The body cameras should be fully deployed by June 2016.