Petition calls on MPD officers to wear cameras
(MILWAUKEE)-- In response to the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, and local police-involved shootings, Community activist Tracey Dent is petitioning the Mayor Tom Barrett to equip Milwaukee Police Department officers with body cameras.
Dent thinks the cameras would go a long way towards relieving the \"trust issues\" that he says the community has with MPD. Police officers would \"think twice before acting a certain way,\" if these cameras are equipped, Dent said.
Janesville, a city roughly 70-miles south and west of Milwaukee, has equipped their officers with body cameras. You can see them in action on the department's YouTube channel:
Speaking from the scene of a deadly shooting on Monday, Police Chief Ed Flynn said his department is moving towards deploying these cameras. \"My professional view is that they are very useful, and that we are doing a request for proposal to buy some so we can field-test them and move from there,\" Flynn said.
Flynn declined to set a timetable for getting these cameras on his officers, but would say that the municipal buying process will not allow these cameras to be deployed anytime soon.
Tracey Dent's petition has been online since Sunday, August 17. At last check Monday night, it had more than 200 signatures: