Senate to consider bill funding police body cameras

CARSON CITY — A bill that would appropriate nearly $1.3 million to equip 481 Nevada Highway Patrol troopers with body cameras by 2017 was amended and approved Friday by the Senate Finance Committee.

Senate Bill 111, sponsored jointly by Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford and Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, both D-Las Vegas, will now go to the full Senate for consideration as a Monday deadline for the 2015 session to adjourn looms. The measure will have to be approved by the Assembly as well.

Ford called the bill a “good start” toward outfitting all law enforcement officers who interact with the public with the cameras. In a hearing on the bill earlier this session, the primary opposition to the measure was the cost rather than the policy question on the use of the cameras, he said.

Body cameras will protect both the officers and the public, Ford said.

The successful effort to get funding was the result of bipartisan work with Gov. Brian Sandoval and lawmakers, he said.

The Nevada Highway Patrol Division must adopt initial policies governing the use of the cameras by July 1, 2016.

Cost is the major factor in deploying the cameras.

At a hearing on another body camera measure earlier this session, the Las Vegas Police Department said it would cost $9.2 million in the first year to buy the cameras for all Las Vegas police and Clark County Detention Center employees. Recurring charges were estimated at $6.6 million annually, a cost which would increase as the amount of required video storage increased.

The agency has 200 cameras now that are being worn by officers as part of a two-year study to determine their effectiveness. The study, which involves 200 other officers who are not wearing the cameras as a control group, and the cameras themselves, were paid for with a grant from the Department of Justice. The study is for the first year.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.