Omaha Police Foundation Works to Raise Final $225K for Body Cam Program

The Omaha Police Foundation (www.OmahaPoliceFoundation.org) is working to raise the final $225,000 to support the purchase of 460 additional body cameras so that every uniformed patrol officer in the Omaha Police Department (OPD) will have his or her own camera, rather than sharing by precinct. The cost of storage of the camera footage is part of that fundraising package.

Deputy chief of Omaha Police, Kerry Neumann, says when OPD adopted body cameras three years ago, it seemed like a no brainer. The cams serve as unbiased witness in courts, being able to tell the story of what happened at crimes scenes, but agencies around the country are now struggling with managing this huge amount of digital evidence.

State law requires body cam videos be stored for at least 90 days. OPD’s policy is to keep them for 120 days. So, they built the DREAM unit (short for Digitally Recorded Evidence Access and Management), a room inside their headquarters where they can locate all the video footage they collect and easily access it when requested by the courts.

OPD has spent just over $2 million on their body cam program, about two-thirds of which is being spent simply to store the digital evidence. Thankfully for the taxpayers, the Omaha Police Foundation has raised the funds to pay for the bulk of the cost of this project. While the Omaha Police Foundation strives to raise much more for the OPD, they say it’s worth every penny and they plan to have every officer fully equipped by the end of 2019.

For more information on the Omaha Police Foundation or how you can support the Body Worn Camera project, visit www.OmahaPoliceFoundation.org or contact Ms. Elizabeth Balazs at (402) 345-5401 Ext. 102 / ebalazs@vgagroup.com.