Ferguson Police Department Implements Body Cameras

Thanks to donations from two security firms, the Ferguson Police Department is now using body cameras with the hope that they never have to defend their actions again.

Police officers in Ferguson began wearing body cameras over the weekend, as residents continue to protest the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager three weeks earlier.

About 50 body cameras were donated by two security firms, Safety Vision and Digital Ally, last week, after talks with the Ferguson Police Department in response to differing stories coming out the of the shooting on Aug. 9 of Michael Brown Jr. by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said that officers are adjusting to working with body cameras, but that the overall response is positive now that nearly the entire department has been trained.

“They are really enjoying them,” Jackson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They are trying to get used to using them.”

More than 150,000 Americans have petitioned the White House to create the Mike Brown Law, which would require all state, county and local police officers to wear body cameras.