OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — With the addition of 150 body cameras, Lieutenant Jim Pauly with the Omaha Police Department says they're on track for every uniformed officer to have a body cam by the end of next year.
"There is no question that they are an invaluable tool both for investigations and for accusations against officers," says Pauly.
He cited one recent example.
About three months ago, Omaha gang unit officer Ken Fortune was shot during a traffic stop.
A still picture from police body cams shows the suspect, John Ezell holding a gun moments before he got out and tried to run.
"It gives people a chance to put themselves in an officer's shoes and say 'could I have handled that? Is that what I would have done in that situation?' It's pretty incredible so they get a first hand view, right here, from an officer's chest about what they're facing every day," says Pauly.
Despite some officer concern. Police say most officers are embracing the new technology.
"We do have officers on a regular basis who want cameras, they want cameras that protects them from accusations, that protects them from proper protocol, we have probably more officers that voice that they want them, than any officers that are opposed," says Pauly.
Pauly says the benefit of the cameras is they show how difficult their job can be at any moment.
"All the video in the country you get the bad things that officers do, or the bad decisions that they made, in the split second that they had, but I'm telling you there's thousands more videos looking at the impossible," says Pauly.
