Miami-Dade Police officers will soon have a new addition to their uniforms: body cameras. The Miami-Dade Commission gave the green light to the police department, after endorsing the plan less than a year ago.
MDPD will join other local police agencies including Miami Police and Miami Beach Police in outfitting their road patrol officers with body cameras. It will cost about $5 million to equip 1,200 officers.
"It'll collect evidence where evidence did not exist before," said MDPD Director Juan Perez.
The cameras will attach either to the officer's shirt in the middle or on the pocket, and the wide angle lens will capture everything in view and the microphone will capture audio as well.
"There's a demand. The community wants us to have body cameras and I don't mind showing what we do every day out there," Perez explained.
Perez said studies show use of force incidents go down once everyone knows police are using body cameras.
"Force is ugly, that's the ugly side of police work. Whether I taze you or I have to flip you to the ground, have to restrain you, all that looks ugly on video. But if the whole incident is captured on video, it'll certainly tell a better story for us," Perez said.
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The Miami-Dade Commission unanimously voted to fund the cameras, but Commissioner Barbara Jordan brought up a concern. The cameras, she noted, don't come on automatically, they have on-off buttons.
"It's left to the discretion of the officer when they choose to turn it on," Jordan said.
Perez said officers would be required to turn their cameras on before every interaction with the public. The mayor said body cameras will be a win-win for everyone.
"Our officers do a great job every single day that nobody sees. So it's not just about catching an officer doing something wrong, on the rare occasion they do, it's actually showing the people of Miami-Dade County the great things they do each and every day," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
Perez said in cities where police officers have body cameras, complaints against officers tend to decrease markedly.
