TROY – The 131-member city police department is months away from launching its pilot program for officers to test wearing body cameras after nobody volunteered to participate, the chief told the City Council Thursday night.

The department intended to conduct its 60-day pilot program this month to test two different video cameras, one of which would be selected to be worn by about 100 officers assigned to patrol.

Chief Brian Owens said after meeting with the City Council that the program won't move forward until talks are conducted between the city’s labor attorneys and the Troy Police Benevolent Association about the use of the cameras.

"The draft policy is mostly completed,” Owens told the council about the guidelines that will determine how the cameras are used.

The two incidents that sparked discussions about deploying body cameras in the city occurred five years ago and three years ago.

In 2014 there was a melee at Kokopellis, the now-closed downtown nightclub at 124 Fourth St. that led to allegations of police brutality. The police officers who responded were cleared by an internal review and an external FBI investigation. The only video was from cameras in the bar.

The other was in 2016 when DWI suspect Edson Thevenin was shot and killed by Sgt. Randall French. The attorney general’s office report on the shooting recommended officers wear body cameras. The city’s street cameras near the incident weren’t working.

Pressed by council members about starting the program, Owens could only say a few months from now. This is not the first time the exploratory phase of a body camera program has been delayed.

Troy abandoned a body camera and dashboard camera pilot program in 2015 when the city spent $200,000 in federal funds available to buy new police cars instead. There also were delays in writing a policy for how the body cameras will be used.

The Capital Region’s two other large urban police departments – Albany and Schenectady – have launched their body camera programs. Albany police officers have worn them since 2017, while Schenectady’s patrol officers will all soon be outfitted with them.

Troy police plan to experiment with body cameras from Panasonic and Axon. Owens said the city has the $200,000 needed to operate the program annually. This would cover the costs of 100 body and storing the video offsite in the cloud.

Each officer having his own body camera instead of sharing it with other officers should result in better maintenance of the equipment, the chief said.