Ann Arbor Police Chief John Seto is recommending the city purchase 86 body-worn video cameras for city police to start wearing in early 2015.

Seto announced his plan during Monday's annual City Council budget retreat.

"I believe we are in a position to recommend the deployment of body-worn cameras," Seto told council members, noting he's been looking into the idea for months and he could bring forward a funding request at the council's next meeting.

Seto proposes purchasing the body cams from L-3 Mobile-Vision Inc., the same vendor that supplies the dash cam equipment for city patrol vehicles.

Seto said the purchase of 86 body cams and related equipment, along with an upgrade to the video systems for 22 vehicles, will cost about $150,000.

He said the upgrade to the in-car video systems already was scheduled for next fiscal year and it's just being bumped up six months.

He didn't have a breakdown of the $150,000, but he said the money is likely to come from the police forfeiture fund, which is revenue from sale of seized assets.

"I'm sure I'm speaking for lots of us, and probably all of us, when I say the recommendation with respect to body-worn cameras is a welcome one," Mayor Christopher Taylor said following Seto's report Monday night.

Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, who helped organize a forum in October where the issue of body cams was raised, also said he was pleased with Seto's report and he looks forward to a proposal coming to council for approval.

Seto said 86 cameras will cover all of the department's frontline personnel in uniform, including both officers and their supervisors in the patrol and traffic units.

He said his plan is to equip an initial group of officers with body cams starting in the first quarter of 2015. Using the knowledge and expertise they gain from using the cameras, he plans to have those officers train the other officers who will be equipped with body cams starting in the second quarter of 2015.

"In addition to the strong policies, we have to have very good training and oversight, and those are the challenges we have moving forward," Seto said.

Council members raised questions about privacy, how long video data would be stored by the city, and who could legally access it.

Not all of those questions have answers yet, but Seto said he's looking to other agencies and groups like the International Association of Chiefs of Police for models and best practices. He said storage of data is going to be one of the challenges.

"We're jumping to a lot more storage of data," he said.

In addition to body cams, Seto told the council he's also reviewing the police department's training programs for officers.

Since the recent fatal shooting of a 40-year-old woman by a city police officer, questions have been raised by members of the public and council members about what types of training officers receive in conflict deescalation and use of force.

Seto said officers go through "annual refresher training" every year, including 24 hours of instructional training on several topics. He said they also take part in online training programs provided by a vendor called TargetSolutions, while some officers are sent to training that is specific to their positions or assignments.

Seto said it's important that the department stays up to date on technology and training moving forward. He also is considering having the department go through a formal accreditation process through a group called CALEA, which stands for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

"The Ann Arbor Police Department was first accredited in 1989," he said. "We received three re-accreditations throughout the years before we withdrew our membership in 2003. So there are some benefits I see with that type of commission and I'm looking into whether or not it's beneficial to bring back the CALEA accreditation process."

Seto said the department also remains focused on community engagement efforts with a new three-person Community Engagement Unit.

He also announced plans to launch a community survey in January that will ask citizens about perceptions of safety and interactions with police officers.

Council Member Stephen Kunselman, D-3rd Ward, said he's interested in seeing what the police department can do to improve crime reporting to council and residents. He said he doesn't want to wait to hear about violent crimes through the media.

Seto noted the city regularly provides reports of crime to CrimeMapping.com and circulates information about certain crimes via other channels, though he said he's open to guidance from council to improve sharing of information.

Council Member Jane Lumm, an independent from the 2nd Ward, said a neighborhood watch leader in her area circulated an email to neighbors about a nearby home invasion the day before Thanksgiving, including a link to an Ann Arbor News article because that was the only information available.

"Here was a really serious crime and there was no notice from the city before or since, and people are frightened," Lumm said.

Council Member Sumi Kailasapathy, D-1st Ward, concurred that many residents are frightened about recent home invasions.

Lumm said the University of Michigan has a great crime alert system it uses to notify people about incidents on campus.

Another issue Seto touched on during his report to council was traffic enforcement, noting the City Council funded a 26-week traffic enforcement campaign this year.

He said that allowed the city to make more than 1,600 additional traffic stops and give out 516 additional citations to motorists. Seto said he considered the campaign a success, but not just because of the citations that were issued.

He said the 26-week campaign increased police presence on neighborhood streets, which had a traffic calming effect, and it provided a lot of opportunities to stop and educate motorists without giving out citations.

Seto didn't make any recommendations to increase public safety staffing Monday night, though multiple council members indicated that remains a priority for them as they start the budget process for fiscal year 2015-16.

Ryan Stanton covers the city beat for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com or 734-623-2529 or follow him on Twitter.