My guess is they will test them, realize they don't have the money for it, and nothing will happen. Just like last time. For those who think they pay for themselves, they don't. I get the thought that reductions in lawsuits might save more money then they cost, but given that a not inconsequential number of departments have discontinued their programs after a few years due to cost that's far from a given. People think of the cameras and the storage as the cost. That's just a part of it, and of course you there are laws on how you store it. At least one state requires video to be stored for 100 years if it involves an unsolved crime. Given how fast storage and software technology changes, that's kind of ridiculous. Several departments around the state ditched body cameras a few years ago when the storage requirement laws for Indiana went into place as they couldn't afford it any longer. Then tack on the expense of the equipment and staff for redacting public release videos. The video is subject to FOIA act requests, so you have to have staff to respond to those requests. Fine, pull video, burn it, send it off...but of course it's not that easy. Cops are routinely in private places or private situations that have to be scrubbed for things that can't be publicly released. The identity of juveniles not charged as adults, for example. Failure to protect confidential data can lead to...you guess it...lawsuits. It's cheap and easy for me to request 10,000 hours of video surveillance. It's neither cheap nor easy for a department to comply. There's no magic editing software that removes sexual assault victim's statements, blurs the faces of juvenile suspects, redacts information that can be used for identity theft, etc. A human has to do that, and has to watch the video in order to do so. Then there's lawsuits for not releasing video in a timely manner. South Carolina tried to address that at the state level by passing a law that body cam footage wasn't public, similar to interrogation videos, and wasn't subject to FOIA requests. That would greatly reduce the cost. I'm not sure if that ever passed, and if it it survived court challenges if it did.
I, frankly, have doubts the city is willing to dedicate the money it would take it actually do it correctly for all involved.
BBI just Denny'd.