Police body cams are on the way, Prince George’s County exec says

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - As many as 1,000 Prince George’s County police officers will be outfitted with body cameras before the end of the year – that’s what County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said today on FOX 5.
She said the money is in the budget, and the cameras are being purchased.

The issue was highlighted recently when investigators discovered that there was no body camera footage available following a deadly police shooting.

Former Police Chief Mark McGraw, who now works as the head of public safety, says the structure and protocols are already in place

"It is going to take a little bit of time and training to roll out to a thousand officers but we are going to start July one and the goal is by the end of the year have the entire patrol force done,” McGraw said.

Since body camera programs have been rolled out in the District, Montgomery County, and other jurisdictions, the public has been able to see – at times – what the police see when they get onto a scene or are involved in a violent confrontation.

In many cases, it has added crucial information to police-involved shootings, and incidents that have turned controversial.

The county executive says there is not $1.2 million in the budget to purchase Panasonic cameras that will work in conjunction with the Panasonic Cruiser dash cams.

She also indicated that the policies are being reviewed.

"We are doing a top to bottom review right now to talk about things like how do we evaluate officers for fitness how do we talk about the psychological interventions that need to happen--we talk about what do we do in recruitment in training what about our methods and practices that need to be changed,” she said.