Donald Trump has backed US government funding to help police departments purchase body cameras, the latest statement from a high-profile political figure to indicate that bipartisan consensus for increased officer accountability may be mounting across the American political landscape.

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In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Republican presidential frontrunner said “there could be” federal funding directed to those local law enforcement agencies that wanted to buy the cameras and could not afford the technology without financial aid.

“Some of these departments have plenty of money, and some of them don’t. And if they like the idea of the cameras, they need federal funding,” Trump said on Monday. “It can solve a lot of problems for police. It can also solve a lot of problems – period.”

However, Trump did not support making the officer-worn video cameras mandatory across the country, as the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has done, noting “different police departments feel different ways”.

Body cameras emerged as an early reform effort in the wake of the police shooting of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown 14 months ago in Ferguson, Missouri. Legislative proposals in Congress have stalled, however, even as criminal justice and policing proposals have become an increasing priority for the 21 candidates for the White House as officer-involved killings have continued to spark protests.

The Counted, an accountability project by the Guardian which tracks all police killings in the US, has recorded more than 900 officer-involved deaths so far this year. In a turning point last week, FBI director James Comey said it was “unacceptable that the Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper” were monitoring such deaths better than the federal government, while attorney general Loretta Lynch said she “encouraged” local law enforcement to keep better track.

Trump insisted he has “great respect for the police”, adding of police killings: “You’re always going to have a bad apple and you’re going to see that on the news every once in a while.”

By presenting body-camera funding as a potentially pro-police measure, however, the real-estate mogul may have found another surprising way to have given an issue that has stalled with Republicans renewed potential for bi-partisan agreement – and constituency-building.

“They’re accused of things and oftentimes you see the body cameras and, all of the sudden, they didn’t do anything wrong,” Trump told the Guardian. “And I almost think that it is a positive thing for the police, but it really would depend on the department itself.”

Among the 14 Republicans trailing Trump in national polls for the party nomination, only Senator Rand Paul has gone further on body cameras, co-sponsoring congressional legislation to start federal pilot programs to fully test the effectiveness of the technology. Ohio governor John Kasich has expressed his openness to similar legislation, while retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has proclaimed of body cameras, simply: “I love it.”

Clinton and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who will face off in the first Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday, have both proposed requiring body cameras for all police officers. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley has simply dubbed body cameras “a best standard” in law enforcement, without calling for them to be mandatory.

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In his wide-ranging conversation with the Guardian, during which he also challenged Sanders and the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, Trump laid out more thoughts on domestic policy – including a high-speed train system to better compete with China – and the recent “disaster” of Washington infighting that has left Republicans looking for a speaker of the House.

“They get along worse than they get along with the Democrats, and unless the parties unifies, they are going to lose all the power,” Trump warned. “They have the majority, but they don’t really have the majority because they have all of these factions.”

While expressing hope that Republicans could find a new speaker to “unify under”, Trump repeatedly questioned the possibility of 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan succeeding John Boehner as speaker because of the Wisconsin congressman’s past support for immigration reform.

“He’s a choice that some people like,” Trump said of Ryan. “I’d like to see somebody very tough, very smart and somebody that’s going to be able to bring everyone together. He’s been very weak on amnesty, which bothers me.”

Trump said he thought he could bring a spirit of bipartisanship back to Washington.

“I think I am going to get along with many of the Democrats. I’ve always gotten along in business,” he said. “And, now, if you look at what’s going on, they’re getting along with nobody. Nobody gets along with anybody, they can’t get anything done Washington’s in gridlock, and it’s a disaster.

“Republicans and Democrats used to have dinner together,” he said. “You don’t see that any more.”

He refused, however, to name any specific Democrats with whom he might break bread if he became president. “I don’t pick out a name – don’t want to hurt anybody or help anybody, frankly.”

Trump, whose campaign slogan is “make America great again” harkened back to an era when he thought the country was great and there was bipartisanship. “Well, we’ve had various golden ages,” Trump said. “But in terms of the most recent, I would really say Ronald Reagan was a terrific president. Not only for his policies, he was a conservative guy, not overly conservative. Ronald Reagan had a great espirit de corps.”

On domestic policy, the lifelong New Yorker disagreed with many of his Republican opponents on the importance of spending money on rail infrastructure.

“We have to spend money on mass transit,” Trump said. “We have to fix our airports, fix our roads also in addition to mass transit, but we have to spend a lot of money.”

“China and these other countries, they have super-speed trains. We have nothing. This country has nothing. We are like the third world, but we will get it going and we will do it properly and, as I say, make America great again.”