In the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Obama administration announced that it will dedicate $263 million to body cameras for police officers.
The White House has said it will match the spending of local law enforcement agencies in hopes of making body cameras more prominent.
A month ago, Washtenaw County Sheriffs Office announced that its deputies would wear body cameras, and the city of Ypsilanti is slated to institute the cameras in their police force.
"This is actually something we put in the budget, we adopted this June," said City Council member Brian Robb. "It's a coincidence with all the news going on. This is something we have been looking into for some time now, and it's just finally being brought to Council."
Police Chief Tony DeGiusti has requested that the council approve equipment upgrades for the current car video recording systems, purchasing body cameras, and the server, hardware, software and installation of these new technologies. The total cost of the upgrades is projected to be $54,634.
"We are sort of on the cutting edge of this, and we investigated this early," Robb said. "Now these opportunities are coming up, I think we may wait to take advantage of the extra funding."
The resolution will be presented to the Ypsilanti City Council tonight at a board meeting.
