GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) -- The city commission chambers were packed Tuesday night with people showing their support for having Grand Rapids police officers wear body cameras.
The topic wasn't on the Grand Rapids city commission agenda, but members of the public brought it up during the public comment portion of the meeting.
The group LINC Community Revitalization helped people get to the meeting and show support for the idea, by offering attendees food and transportation from its Hall St. headquarters to City Hall.
"If you look at Ferguson and the outbreak, one of the things is justice came down to 'he said, she said,'" LINC co-executive director Darel Ross II told WZZM 13 on Monday. "With body cameras, you eliminate that, because you have the footage, you have the data, and it's just a very powerful, strong piece of evidence to bring into the situation."
Grand Rapids Police Chief David Rahinsky was at the meeting as well. He said he was pleased to see such a large turnout and that he is very sensitive towards this issue. He says one of the issues is that the technology is new. "What I have found is it's still very early in the process. Policing hasn't had such a dramatic change in such a short amount of time in the history of policing, the technology is relatively new in terms of policy implications," says Rahinsky.
President Obama has also proposed a national $75 million program to have the federal government pay half the cost for body cameras in local police agencies. In a press release Monday, The White House said, "overall, the proposed $75 million investment over three years could help purchase 50,000 body worn cameras. The initiative as a whole will help the federal government efforts to be a full partner with state and local LEAs in order to build and sustain trust between communities and those who serve and protect these communities."
By the end of their meeting Tuesday night -- which saw comments from a long line of people supporting the idea -- city commissioners scheduled a formal public hearing on the topic for December 16.
