St. Louis to Equip Officers with Body Cameras

All St. Louis police officers could be wearing body cameras within 90 days after a contentious and chaotic vote of the St. Louis Board of Estimate and Apportionment on Wednesday.

Although officials said that there were many details that still need to be worked out, the board voted unanimously to immediately implement a free, one-year trial with one company while a longer-term contract is sought, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed said that during the trial period,  Axon , formerly known as TASER International, would provide up to 1,300 cameras and all the associated equipment and software and store the data for a year for free.

At the end of the year, it could all be returned at no cost, he said, or the city could pay $1,000 per camera per year to keep using Axon. That would be $1.3 million per year for 1,300 cameras. The city would retain control of the data, he said.