A local police department is making a couple of purchases to help protect residents and improve transparency.
Palm Springs Police Chief Tom Ceccarelli tells me the village has approved the purchase of 50 body cameras.
"We were budgeted to outfit every officer here with a body camera, in addition to the in-car cameras. I know some agencies are saving money by not buying the in-car cameras anymore, just buying the body cameras but we'll still keep both."
He says the cruisers have been outfitted with dashboard cams for several years, but the body cams will be new.
The contract to purchase and operate the cameras will cost about $66,000 per year for five years.
The Police Department is also purchasing drones to help in searches for suspects and missing residents.
"We had an incident recently where an endangered adult had gone missing, so we had to call the sheriff's office. They came out with their drone to search the area. But now we won't have to rely on another agency to do it, we can do it ourselves."
Chief Ceccarelli says the plan is to purchase up to four of them at a cost of between $2,000 and $4,000 each.
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