Police officers in Alexandria, Virginia, are the only ones in the D.C. region who don’t wear body cameras. On Friday, the effort to change that got a boost of federal money.
A $600,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department has been earmarked to help the city, according to a release from U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia). The money will be combined with other federal and local dollars the city is using to begin the $2.2 million rollout.
The federal money will be used to help buy 25 to 50 cameras, Beyer said in the statement.
The city recently approved a pilot program in its 2023 fiscal year budget, and city leaders are in the process of planning for the program’s implementation. The hope is to have cameras worn by officers sometime next spring.
Alexandria has more than 300 police officers. Once the program is up and running, the city expects the cost of maintaining it to come in at around $1.5 million a year.
