The rollout of the body cams began early Monday, with the first of 7,000 cameras that will be bought and deployed over the next few months.

"This is a big moment for us," said Capt. Todd Chamberlain, who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department's mission division, according to The Los Angeles Times. "I think they realize that they're making history today."

The mission division in the San Fernando Valley is the first to get the cameras, which are mounted on officers’ chests. Almost 900 of the devices will be distributed to three LAPD divisions in the next month.

Police body cams have been in the spotlight in the past year, as nationally publicized protests of police killings of unarmed black suspects flared up in Ferguson, Missouri; New York, North Charleston, South Carolina; and other cities. Advocates have renewed the call for police to wear body cameras to document their interaction with suspects. They say that the resulting videotapes shed light on police encounters and could serve as a check on police misconduct.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of California, which pushed for the body cams, withdrew its support in this case after the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to allow officers to review the camera footage before writing reports or making statements to internal investigators.

And the LAPD, citing privacy issues, said it will not make the tapes public unless they become part of a court proceeding.

“We support body cameras in principle,” said Peter Bibring, the California ACLU’s director of police practices. “We have had concerns with the LAPD policies. Body cameras don’t promote transparency if police don’t release the footage.”

The department’s policies undercut accountability, he said.

Cameras are a great incentive to tell the truth, Bibring said. “But if you show the officer the footage first, an officer who is inclined to lie can do so in a way consistent with the video evidence.”

Los Angeles police will turn on the cameras before most investigative or enforcement activities and will alert citizens that they are being recorded. They may tape the proceedings even without their consent, however.

The cameras were funded by $1.5 million in private donations raised by the Los Angeles Police Foundation.

The ACLU is also concerned that body camera footage could be used for surveillance. “The department shouldn’t be able to access the footage to keep dossiers on people who protest,” for example, Bibring said. “It should only be examined if there is reason to believe [there was] misconduct.”

A recent poll by the ACLU showed that more than 70 percent of California voters believe body camera footage should be released in use-of-force incidents and allegations of misconduct.