Three years after CalMatters’ reporting revealed that only 3% of California Highway Patrol officers wore body cameras, one of the state’s largest police forces plans to equip all its officers with the technology by next year.
In 2015, now-retired Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer pitched a $10 million plan to give all CHP officers body cameras. Lawmakers landed on a one-year, $1 million pilot program. Officers recorded nearly 93,000 videos within that year, but the program was never expanded.
In 2022, CalMatters’ story noted that the pilot project had only led to 237 body cameras agency-wide, putting the CHP far behind local law enforcement agencies. At the time, the agency said it was focused on upgrading its dash cam system. Five months later, CHP sought funding for body cameras for all its officers, and state lawmakers approved the budget request…