I live in Illinois, and our city council for years made one excuse after another to avoid bodycams. The main excuse was the cost. they were getting bids of up to $120,000 per body cam per year. really.....
Now, our city council is 3/4 black. You would think with all the BLM they would WANT body cams... Nope, they just fought and fought them.
Well, two years ago, our Masonic Blue Lode with our the Moose bought 20 Go-Pro cams for the PD. Now the officers were THRILLED. See, that’s what you never hear, the narrative is that officers HATE them. WRONG.
So, it took a year for them to be allowed. Even though they were bought and paid for (at under $500 each) by our ogranizations the blacks on our city council fought tooth and nail, they hired attorneys, and fought it with the “wiretapping” laws, citing that you can’t record someone without a judges order....
Why would the black city council people be so against body cams?
Because, now after about 8 months of use, it turns out that EVERY damned lawsuit that has been brought against the police department for “racism” or “brutality” has been dropped once the other side realizes there are “body cams” involved.
Our cops love them. they have them on all the time, and they transmit both to the PD server AND their own personal servers (which the city is now trying to block, stating that any video shot while “on duty” is property of the PD). A judge is currently allowing them to save their own footage while this is under review.
Don’t listen to these asses that tell you cops hate bodycams. Good cops love them. Bad cops? maybe not so much. But sure as hell our city council HATES them.
If I were a cop in this situation, I would do it anyways regardless of what anybody said about it. Let the sun shine in. Don't let anyone hide the truth.
As a fellow resident of Illinois your story doesn’t surprise me in the least.
L