Baltimore Misses Police Body Camera Deadline

Baltimore this week blew through its deadline to begin deployment of police body cameras.

The cameras, as announced in March, were supposed to be deployed starting Sunday. But Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that instead, the cameras provided by Taser International will arrive this week, with the first 60 officers to be trained on May 23.

When they are deployed, Rawlings-Blake said, the plan is still to deploy them to all nine districts and all officers at the same time. Originally, the plan was to deploy the body cameras in five installments of 500 each, ending in January 2018.

Rawlings-Blake offered no apology or explanation on the reason for the delay.

We set deadlines and goals. We may have missed the May 1 mark but it doesn't mean we're not pushing hard to get that done," she said. "You can't get exact dates to get your bathroom redone."