City Council approves purchase of new RPD bodycams

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Rochester City Council voted on Tuesday night to sanction the purchase of new body-worn cameras for the RPD.

The City Council has authorized more than $2 million to put towards new cameras for officers.

Over the summer, a News10NBC investigation found that officers were wearing outdated cameras. Some senior officers even had to pass off their cameras to incoming officers.

The Rochester Police Department says overall, the cameras have been beneficial to both the public, and as a training tool within the department.

“It went from at one point wondering how it was going to work to now it’s an integral part of everything, between discovery law changes and use of force, officers are used to using them,” says Adam DeVincentis of the Rochester Locust Club. “We had three officer shootings in May alone and there is body camera footage on all of them, it really assists.”

The department says the cameras have also helped officers learn from their interactions with the public.

“It helps us hold ourselves accountable too, we can see how we’re performing. A supervisor can pull up a camera at any point and look at how their officers are performing in a good way and a bad way,” says Rochester Police Department Lieutenant Greg Bello.