Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson presented the department's more than $50 million budget request needed to order and implement body and dash cameras.
"I've never brought a budget request to the council and to the mayor of this magnitude," Police Chief Steve Anderson said.
The system's total cost is $50,170,000. More than $40 million from Capital funds will go towards hardware, software and infrastructure for the camera project, which includes two body cameras for every sworn officer, all 1,400 of them.
"What we propose is everyone from lieutenant on down have a camera, a body camera," Anderson said.
Anderson said the camera project needs to be a full implementation of the program with no shortcuts.
"We're not proposing a Cadillac system but we are proposing a Ford or Chevrolet that starts every time and has four tires that will be able to get us somewhere," he said during a budget hearing with Mayor Megan Barry.
The project also includes an integrated dash cam system that will give officers a 180 degree view around and in their squad cars. "We'd put three cameras on the cars, one facing directly forward, two off to the side to give a 180 degree view then of course one cam on the backseat where we transport prisoners," Anderson explained.
"I think what we're doing right now is walking through the budget process with all of the departments, at the end of the budget process we will see all of those requests and will make the best decisions for the taxpayers of Davidson County," Barry said.
Barry will present a formal budget request to metro council in the Spring.
