TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo police are one step closer to expanding how many on the force will be required to wear a body camera.
Footage from Toledo Police body cameras is headed to the cloud, allowing the department to store more footage and eventually bring in more cameras.
"It's $280,000 a year just for storage. So, it's important, it's necessary, and I made that commitment to the citizens that we're going to have officers that have body-worn cameras," Toledo Police Chief George Kral said.
There has been renewed interest in making sure people's interactions with police are recorded following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
As of right now, not all officers in TPD wear cameras while on duty.
"Right now, it's strictly our field operations patrol officers, and that's going to widen quite a bit. We're going to make it so that any sworn officer that has dealings with the public is going to be issued their own body-worn camera," Kral said.
Kral plans to apply for grants and other special programs to get the additional cameras, so they wouldn't be coming directly out of the city budget.
He believes the footage protects both the officer and the citizen.
"It's being recorded for the entire length of the meeting with the citizen and not just a particular 10 seconds that someone decides to upload to YouTube from their cellphone," Kral said.
The deal approved Tuesday by council is for a 5-year contract for cloud storage of the body camera footage.
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