BOISE -- In just a few months, when Boise Police officers respond to a call, they could be wearing body cameras to record what happens.
Idaho's largest city is planning to join the majority of law enforcement agencies throughout the state to be able to have video evidence of encounters with the public. It's something the police department has been looking into for several years.
Now, they've decided to put a body camera on each of their nearly 300 officers.
Back in May, 7 Investigates found that nearly every county in Idaho had either body or dash cameras, and many cities did as well.
But Boise had neither. Police Chief William Bones says that's about to change.
"We would love to have video for everything now because I think it does capture the work that's being done, it protects the public and our officers," said Bones.
Bones says ever since he took over as chief in February, one of his top goals was to get body cameras on his officers.
"We started working on the policy a long time ago and looking at the best policies across the country and trying to steal all of those pieces and make it fit what or community expectations are," said Bones.
Bones says for the last 20 years, Boise Police has used audio recordings. But says he watched as agencies all over Idaho got video cameras either on patrol cars or worn on officers.
"Well it bothered me a little bit that we didn't have them and other agencies were getting ahead of us on that, on the same token we really didn't want to make any mistakes because it is such a big element that will have an effect on the privacy of our community and we wanted to do it right," said Bones.
He says the other big factor was cost, and says the cameras were a million dollars more just a year and a half ago. But, the bigger reason for waiting - the controversy that's unfolded nationwide over when the cameras are rolling and how privacy is.
But he says now they're ready.
"There's no particular incident now, we've been pushing the last two years to make this happen, we really wanted to implement it before the end of this year," said Bones.
Boise Police is about to enter a contract with Taser for cameras worn on an officer's collar or glasses. Bones says another big concern is storing all the footage with nearly 300 officers and an average 400 calls a day.
Bones says despite the cost and privacy issues, it's a step Boise needs to take.
"Not anxious at all, it's definitely something that we want and I think our officers will enjoy having it, it's a fantastic tool for an evidentiary and liability standpoint," said Bones.
As for exactly when the cameras will be turned on, Bones says they're still figuring that out. He says footage of a crime that will work its way through court will be kept indefinitely, but all other videos will be stored for 90 -180 days on a cloud server provided by Taser.
As for the cost, Chief Bones says it will be $56,000 the first year, then about a half million dollars over the next five years.
The police department has the funds to cover initial costs, but then they'll have to work with the city to cover ongoing expenses.
