North Carolina Agency First in Nation to Wear Panasonic's New Body Cameras

Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock says he is looking at a Panasonic body camera model for his department that would cost the city about $150,000.

That cost, he told the City Council during Wednesday night's budget workshop, would be the 50 percent local match required if his department is successful at winning grants from the N.C. Governor's Crime Commission and federal program for body-worn cameras announced by President Obama earlier this year.

Medlock said the Panasonic models are so new that his department would be the first in the country to test them, tentatively beginning in early June.

"They are going to let us test drive them at no cost," Medlock told the Fayetteville Observer .

He hopes to buy 350 body camera units for all of his patrol officers by Dec. 31, he said.