

Naomi Nix and Dan Ivers | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

NEWARK — The mayors of New Jersey's largest cities plan to outfit their police forces with body cameras to record officers' interactions with residents.

Newark, Jersey City and Patterson plan to purchase about 2,000 cameras to be divvied among the three cities according to the size of their police departments, said Jersey City Steven Fulop.

"It's as much to protect appropriate action by the police officers and appropriate action by the community," said Fulop. "It serves as protection for both the community and the police."

Paterson Mayor Jose Torres was not available for comment today.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka first mentioned the bulk purchase plan at a press conference on Tuesday to respond to a grand jury's decision not to indict a Ferguson, Mo. police officer for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.



He said the cameras were an important step toward increasing accountability in the police department and ensuring that that Ferguson does not happen here in the city of Newark.



The recording equipment is also likely to be mandated by the federal Department of Justice as part of a pending consent decree that will order numerous reforms in the department.



"We need systemic remedies for the things that are happening in these communities over and over again," Baraka said.



"Here, we are absolutely committed to making sure that we do have police officers that wear body cameras, and so is the U.S. Attorney's Office."

Fulop said the cities are currently working to put out an RFP to buy the cameras. He added that he expects to begin the program in Jersey City in early 2015.

Earlier this year, Newark passed a proposall to enter into a cooperative purchasing agreement with Patterson and Jersey City.

"We shared similar problems and we have large police departments and there is an opportunity to have costs savings for tax payers by buying things collectively," Fulop said.

"Since we are all interested in it we thought that doing it together was a good way to save tax payer money."

But the cameras present the municipalities with some logistical and legal challenges.

New Jersey courts have previously declared that footage from such cameras are subject to public records requests, and therefore the cities must figure out how to legally and inexpensively store the data, according to the Jersey City mayor.

Additionally, Fulop said, the cities must make sure camera equipment malfunctions don't lead to lawsuits.

"Those are things we are working through," he said.

Naomi Nix may be reached at nnix@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @nsnix87. Find NJ.com on Facebook.