The Monmouth Police Department is awaiting approval of state and federal grants to purchase body worn cameras for all officers, which is to be implemented by 2025. Communications Director Ken Helms says the cameras will cost around $1,500 to $2,000 per body camera:
“It is pretty expensive technology along with some annual maintenance fees that are associated with it. We are going to use basically a hosted provider to handle that, which has AI software so when we get a FOIA request or anything like that and say we victims or medical, a number of different things, by law we would be required to redact before we can release that footage. The system is able to provide that for us. Doing that it will increase the responsibilities of the staff that are assigned to do that. Ideally, we are probably looking at somewhere between $1,500 to $2,000 per camera and that would cover 19 officers.”
During the month of February, the Monmouth Police Department had 2,067 dispatch calls and 1,092 standard calls of service. Additionally, calls for auto accidents was considerably down compared to 2022.
