Patrol officers at the Mission Division in the San Fernando Valley will begin receiving body cameras today as part of a roll out of 860 such cameras at three Los Angeles Police Department divisions over the next month.
Mission Division police officers are the first to receive the cameras, followed by officers at the Newton Division on Sept. 15 and the Central traffic and specialized divisions on Sept. 28.
The Taser body cameras are designed to be worn on the chest and were purchased using $1.5 million in private donations raised by the Los Angeles Police Foundation.
The city is also considering purchasing another 7,000 cameras to outfit the entire police department at a cost of about $10 million. Funding was included in this year’s city budget but has not been appropriated, with city officials still waiting on federal grants that they hope will pay for half of the costs.
The Mission station serve the Arleta, Panorama City, Sylmar, North Hills and Mission Hills areas, the Newton division covers the Fashion District, South Park and Pueblo Del Rio, and the Central Division serves much of downtown Los Angeles.
