MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – West Memphis Police say they’re getting in line with what has become an industry standard, police body cameras.
Every West Memphis Officer is now approved to receive a body camera.
Accountability is really what West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon and the West Memphis Police Department are looking for with these body cameras, but they hope these cameras will lead to a future of better policing.
“I’ll tell you our officers are ready to put them on and our citizens are ready for us to have them on as well,” West Memphis Police Major Harvey Taylor said.
Now, 26 police body cameras will soon be property of the West Memphis Police Department. The West Memphis City Council previously approved $90,000 for the cameras and at its last meeting finalized the contract with the camera company.
These will be the first body cameras at WMPD which is a piece of equipment that has become standard in the line of duty.
“It’s becoming a new standard but I think it’s needed,” Taylor said. “All the citizens we deal with for every encounter there are cell phones everywhere. Everything we do is on somebody’s cell phone.”
“We want to make sure our officers are always treating our citizens correctly and make sure our citizens are being truthful when it comes to our police department,” Mayor McClendon said.
Mayor McClendon said he hopes the transparency of the body camera provides more trust between officers and the public. He said the cameras are part of his bigger vision of more community orientated policing.
Major Taylor hopes the cameras can improve policing down the road.
“If there’s situation where an officer handled something wrongly you can take that to the training department and you can learn from that,” Taylor said. “You can use that for younger officers coming up so that those actions and those situations don’t happen repeatedly.”
The department’s body camera policy is being worked out.
As for when these cameras will get to West Memphis for officers to use, that’s all up in the air. Issues with the supply chain have also impacted materials needed to manufacture these cameras.
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