WASHINGTON — The Prince George’s County’s Police Department is planning how it’ll fix a maintenance problem after learning hundreds of dash cam systems don’t work. But the department says the maintenance costs won’t get in the way of a pilot program to equip officers with body cameras.
While the department plans how it’ll replace the 278 dash cameras that aren’t working on its cruisers, Capt. Bill Alexander says the maintenance cost won’t affect the other cameras the department is interested in.
“Ironically, the body cam hardware itself is cheaper than the in-car camera,” he says.
But they’re also funded from different budgets: Police say County Executive Rushern Baker is on board for a cost of $1.25 million a year for the next three years.
But a lot of questions remain when it comes to finalizing the budget.
“We don’t know what kind of demand that there will be. How many people will want videos, how many videos do we want to produce and put out there, and do it quickly so it’s valuable to a court process,” says police Inspector General Carlos Acosta, who is overseeing the program’s development.
Not to mention the time and expense of training employees to use the cameras and the video storage system.
The pilot program is expected to start with 100 officers before the end of the year; however, Acosta says the budget has flexibility: “So if they only give me enough money for 50 cameras, we’ll put 50 cameras on the street.”
The county has been working on the program for two years, he says.
