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Allegheny County Council Expected To Vote On Police Body Camera Legislation

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Allegheny County Council is expected to hold a vote on a highly discussed topic here in the Pittsburgh area -- focusing on on body cameras for police officers.

The biggest cost related to the issue isn't for the cameras themselves, but for storing the video from them.

According to Penn Hills Police, the cameras cost around $900 each.

The department had to spend around $160,000 total on the devices, but cloud storage can cost around $5,000 per month.

Penn Hills Police purchased a computer with an 8 terabyte hard drive to deal with the data storage.

The annual cost for the licensing and warranty comes to around $30,000 per year.

According to Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco, many smaller departments can't afford that, so he's looking at grants to be of help.

Around 25 of the 110 departments in the county already use body cameras.

The bill for body cameras was voted out of a County Council committee last month with a 5-1 vote.

Stay with KDKA for developing updates as the vote is taken by County Council this evening.

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