Batavia To Equip Police With Body Cameras In 2021

Jason Addy
·1 min read

BATAVIA, IL — Batavia police officers are set to start wearing body cameras in 2021 after aldermen ordered city staff to work out an agreement to lease the equipment for five years, the Kane County Chronicle reports.

The city is expected to spend $140,000 over that period to lease cameras, software and storage space from Getac Technology, which would be used by all 41 officers in the Batavia Police Department, the report states.

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Batavia Police Chief Dan Eul said the department is moving to equip officers with body cameras in response to public outcry and widespread protests this year after police killings of Black people, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks.

During the first eight months of 2020, 164 Black people were killed by police officers in the U.S., CBS News reported, using data from Mapping Police Violence and The Washington Post.

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Though Black people make up about 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, about 21 percent of the 771 people killed by police between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 were Black, CBS News reports. Illinois police officers killed five Black people and one Hispanic person over the same period, the report shows.

The Batavia City Council on Tuesday showed broad support for equipping police with body cameras, with Seventh Ward Alderman Keenan Miller saying “it protects our officers and our citizens,” the Kane County Chronicle reports.

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This article originally appeared on the Batavia Patch