(KAIR)--Body cameras are coming to the Atchison Police Department, following City Commission approval of the purchase during the regular meeting of September 7.

The vote of the Commission approving the near $47,000 contract with WatchGuard Technologies followed a presentation by Atchison Police Chief Mike Wilson, who explained that action of the Kansas Legislature, making body camera footage mostly exempt from the public record, means now is the time to move forward with the purchase.

Purchase of the cameras, and support equipment, has been discussed by the City leaders during past budget workshop sessions, with the funds already budgeted to cover the price tag.

According to the City, the expenditure will “outfit all of the officers with cameras, along with charging stations, a transfer station that moves the footage from the cameras to a server, and the server for storage of footage.”

The cameras will sync with dash cameras already outfitted in each patrol car, and can sync together when multiple officers are in the same vicinity on a call.

Delivery, installation and training is estimated to take about 3 months, with the goal being to have the cameras fully operational by the end of the year.