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Boonville Police Department Receives New Equipment

Of all the historic buildings in Boonville, one of the most well-known is Thespian Hall, which still hosts dramatic and musical performances throughout the year.
Darren Hellwege
/
KBIA
Of all the historic buildings in Boonville, one of the most well-known is Thespian Hall, which still hosts dramatic and musical performances throughout the year.

The Boonville police officers are now using body cameras. Last week, the police department received 20 body cameras for its full-time police officers. The department received a grant to purchase 7 cameras while the city paid for the rest. Each body camera costs $738. Boonville Detective Randall Ayers said the cameras have only had minor software glitches so far. He said the new body cameras will benefit the police department.

“If there are any kind of complaints that we would be able to review in the video to see exactly what happened and we believe it will cut down on the fraudulent complaints,” Ayers said.

Ayers also said the police department has been talking about getting body cameras for about a year and immediately got the cameras once they were on the market. According to Ayers, the city of Boonville is not planning on purchasing additional cameras.

However, some legislators said body cameras create privacy issues. Senator Doug Libla introduced a bill that would exempt all footage recorded by police officers from being in open records. However, the ACLU is not convinced this bill would benefit the community. ACLU’s Director of Policy and Advocacy Sarah Rossi said the use of body camera footage would benefit both the public and police officers.

“If the body camera footage is completely inaccessible to the public, it doesn’t really serve the purpose of the cameras which is to increase the transparency when it comes to police interactions with the public,” Rossi said.

Rossi said the body camera footage could protect both the public and the police by holding them accountable for their actions. She said the ACLU has been working with legislators, and is willing to work with anyone who wants to benefit from the use of body camera footage while respecting the privacy of individuals.

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