Council member Lavonta Williams says she understands where Berry is coming from. She said maybe they could sit down with the city manager and discuss the issue further.
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by Megan Strader
Monday November 15, 2010
Be honest. When you're in your car you're always keeping an eye out for police. But who's keeping an eye on the officers inside those cars.
"We've asked for this for five years and the city of Wichita's mission statement says they listen to the community and respond to the requests. They have not responded to our request for cameras in police cars."
Sena Peden is the Community Justice Organizer for Sunflower Community Action, and on Tuesday, she'll take her fight for police cameras back to the Wichita City Council.
"All of the surrounding cities, small counties have body cams they have cameras in police cars but Wichita does not. That doesn't make sense."
The community action group has been doing research on small, lapel cameras similar to ones Butler County uses. Wichita police currently has eight cameras in police cars and agrees that more would be beneficial - there's just one problem.
"Because we didn't add them incrementally as times goes on, now that bill is huge."
But Deputy Chief Terri Moses adds, it does help when the community gets behind an idea.
"If the citizens are telling us they want something than that certainly helps when we apply for grants, when we look at other funding sources, I think the granting people would look at that as a real positive."
And Peden just hopes the city council will see it as a positive on Tuesday.
