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Government

Police Body Cameras in Dubuque

A campaign has started in Dubuque to raise money to buy body cameras for police. Today the city's landlord association made the first donation - 2,500 dollars.

Chief Mark Dalsing says his bike patrol and school resource officers have been using the special cameras for several years. 

He would like to equip each of his 50 patrol officers with a body camera, but each camera now costs 6 to 700 dollars. And that's just the start - there's the cost of servers to store years and years of video, plus staff time to load and maintain the records.

Some people have raise privacy concerns, but he doesn't think that's a problem.

Credit Dubuque Police Department
A body camera used by Dubuque police
DALSING3.MP3
Just another way to collect evidence.

The chief hopes to find grants, gifts, and other funding sources to add to today's gift from the Dubuque Area Landlord Association to help buy more cameras. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.