SIOUX FALLS -- After the New York and Ferguson, Missouri choking and shooting incidents of black men, activists are calling for law enforcement officers to wear body cameras.

Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead says that might be a good idea. He says his department might be interested in participating in a pilot program for the devices in the next year or two.

However, Milstead cautions that the cameras are just the beginning of the expense—and issues—involved if law enforcement agencies adopt the practice. He said that President Obama has proposed buying or helping local agencies buy body cameras. But Milstead said says the cameras are the least expensive part of the process.

“I want to make sure that I have sufficient storage for that video footage,” Milstead said. “Run your camera for eight hours in a day and tell me how much storage space that takes up in your server. So I have to have server space to handle terabytes of storage.”

Milstead adds there are also other important non-technical concerns.

“Number one, I don’t want to put a camera on an officer unless I have a good, sound policy for that officer to follow,” Milstead said. “And I want to make sure that policy is consistent with privacy and civil liberties rights of the people that we work for.”

He says his office went through a similar process when it implemented dashboard cameras in sheriff’s cruisers.

 

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