INDIANAPOLIS — Police officers in Indianapolis will be getting body cameras.
The announcement made by Mayor Joe Hogsett Tuesday that the city will be spending $1.2 million that had already been approved by the city-county council to be used for body cameras.
That’s not enough money to outfit every officer in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, according to Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police President Rick Snyder.
“It was reiterated to the public that we were going to equip 1,100 officers with body-worn cameras with only $1.2 million. That is false,” Snyder told Hammer and Nigel on 93 WIBC. “We made clear last January that it’s going to take $15 million to $20 million for this total technology investment.”
Snyder accuses the mayor of not being “upfront” with the community about this process. He also said the timing of Hogsett’s decision to roll out a plan to equip Indianapolis police officers with body cameras couldn’t be worse.
“The problem that we have is that we get this announcement made under the title of ‘police reforms’ at a time in our city where our city is on edge and it suggests and casts dispersions on the immediate events that happened last week,” Snyder added.
Snyder refers to the fatal shooting of Sean Reed by a police officer. IMPD said Reed fired shots at officers while he was running from them and officers returned fire killing him. The incident has brought on many protests against the police.
Hogsett said in his press conference Tuesday the introduction of body cameras for IMPD officers was already in the works even before the shooting, but with the growing controversy surrounding the incident, it was important to update people.
Snyder retorted that that is “inappropriate” adding that officers welcome the fact that body cameras are being rolled out, but that it should have been happening much sooner than it is. The city has been mulling the possibility of outfitting officers with body cameras since 2014.
Finally, Snyder said officers are upset they had to find out about the plan through the media and that Hogsett was not direct with them about it.
