Because our city is too broke right now, the Seattle City Council has asked the Seattle Police Department to pursue federal funding for a significant body-mounted camera pilot project.

The request came in the form of a Statement of Legislative Intent from the council's Energy, Technology, and Civil Rights Committee during today's budget session. A SLI has no power to alter the mayor's proposed budget, it can only request information. The committee wants SPD to report back by June 2011 on its efforts to secure federal grants. Council staff could not provide specific information about how much SPD is expected to raise.

Although Council Member Bruce Harrell has been pushing to start a body camera pilot by next year—the mayor's proposed budget crushed all hope of it. Not surprising, considering that the city is facing a $67 million budget deficit which has forced it to lay off hundreds of employees.

Community activists have asked for body cameras following a string of controversial incidents involving Seattle police officers, the most recent of which was the fatal shooting of John T. Williams.

SPD brought in four VEIVU body-mounted cameras as a trial about three weeks ago which cost $900 each. The committee asked SPD to report on this preliminary trial by the end of June 2011. The council will use this report to consider funding options for cameras in 2012.

Council Member Sally Bagshaw said that although she supported body cameras, she was concerned about the costs associated with having someone go through long hours of video footage to prepare for trial. Harrell pointed out that it might be more cost-effective to explore cloud-based archiving instead of server-based archiving.