The Columbia Police Department on Thursday announced the acquisition of 102 body cameras for use by uniformed officers in an effort to reduce assaults on police, provide more evidence for criminal prosecutions and increase departmental transparency.

A couple of officers in the department�s Downtown Unit have had body cameras since 2011, and last year the department got money to buy five body cameras for a pilot program to determine whether all officers should have them. The department determined the cameras were a good idea and settled on the Axon body camera, which is made by Taser International.

Assistant Chief John Gordon said yesterday at a news conference that the 102 cameras plus hardware, installation and Evidence.com licenses cost $110,000. A three-year deal with Taser International will cost $40,000 annually for maintenance and data storage at Evidence.com, a secure website where videos are stored.

The money comes from a surplus in the 2012 budget. All uniformed officers will be equipped with a body camera. Video for court cases will be stored until the prosecutor assigned to the case allows its destruction, Gordon said, and other video will be deleted after 60 days.

Gordon pointed to several benefits of using the cameras, including the hope that having indisputable evidence will lead to more plea agreements and decrease the volume of cases in court. It can help the department�s relationship with the community as well, he said.

�It will also increase the transparency and accountability of the Columbia Police Department, assist in the resolution of complaints and increase the efficiency and security of the handling of the evidence,� Gordon said.

Gordon said Columbia is the first police agency in Missouri to outfit all uniformed officers with body cameras. Patrol and traffic unit officers, school resource officers and the Street Crimes Unit all will have the technology. Chief Ken Burton said cameras can be furnished to detectives or other officers at their request to record crime scenes.

The cameras� video resolution is �excellent,� said patrol Officer Spirit Stevens, who has worn one for about a year. She said it doesn�t prohibit her movement.

�It�s very light,� Stevens said. �I don�t have any problem with it falling off. ... If I were in a struggle with somebody, I actually don�t think about it� being on the uniform.

The cameras are equipped to record at night. They�re always on, and they capture the 30 seconds before officers manually activate them. Battery life is 12 hours, the normal length of a shift for a patrol officer.

Stevens said the 130-degree lens captures a wide area and the recorded sound is audible when an officer is near a subject.

Training on the equipment began earlier this week, Gordon said, and is expected to finish next week. Prosecutors are being trained on the use of Evidence.com. Deputy Chief Jill Schlude said the cloud-based video storage will speed up the process when police have to provide prosecutors with video.

Though Stevens said she hasn�t noticed a marked change in people�s behavior when she tells them they�re being recorded, Burton said he hopes people will think twice about being aggressive with officers because of the cameras.

The Citizens Police Review Board will have access to the videos, Burton said, when there is a complaint against an officer.

Columbia police also have several other forms of surveillance. Dashboard cameras are in use in patrol vehicles, and officers have been equipped with microphones to record sound. Two patrol cars have automatic license plate readers, and there are eight surveillance cameras at four downtown intersections. The cameras are used to review incidents after the fact and aren�t continuously monitored.

In addition to two officers on the Downtown Unit, patrol officers on motorcycles and some school resource officers also had been using body cameras before yesterday, Gordon said recently.

This story was first published online on Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 5:00 p.m.