Police Body Camera Ordinance Introduced

Police Body Camera Ordinance Introduced

Evening ... i'm hunter petroviak.thanks for joining us.tonight we get a first look at a new ordinance that would outfit hundreds of fort wayne police officers with body cameras.the issue came to the forefront after downtown protests became contentious in late may.

Fox 55's jentill neal joins us live now from city hall to tell us more about how they would be used and whether the video will be accessible to the public.

Jentill?hunter, councilwomen michelle chambers and sharon tucker introduced the new ordinance.

It wasn't voted on tonight but if it's approved more than four hundred officers would be wearing them by 20-23.

Police chief steve reed did not attend tonight's meeting but city officials expect to hear from the chief in two weeks.tucker says city council will have open discussions with both reed and the police union.

She says at that time all of the data from research from over the last few months will also be presented.right now tucker says she's confident the ordinance will received bipartisan approval.

Councilman russ jehl also publicly spoke out in support of the body cameras.the only thing they have to work out now is how the cameras will be operated.

If they'll be on all the time or if the officers will have the option to turn they are working with citizens.

"as far as data storage, policy will be set by the chief of police.

The data storage should be no different than what we currently have with our police cams. whateve r means that anyone uses to acquire that detail and that data then whether it was a full year request, that shouldn't be any different."

Now again there is no council meeting next week.but we will hear more about the proposal on july 28th and we will