Did you catch the cop camera briefing at city hall yesterday?

Well, if you missed it and don't have time to watch the whole thing, Publicola's got you covered with a nice rundown of the meeting:

The two companies—Taser International and Vievu—had two primary arguments: First, that putting cameras on officers’ torsos (Vievu) or their heads (Taser, as seen on two audience members in the photo)—would reduce the number of bogus claims of police misconduct, and second, that it would save the city money in court costs and police overtime for officers who have to appear in court to defend themselves in misconduct cases.

“If you have video documentation, it reduces complaints by 50 percent” because people drop illegitimate complaints, Vievu president Steve Ward told the council. That reduction, Ward said, could save the city $2.7 million in litigation costs (i.e., half of what the city spend on litigation and settlements in 2008) and $853,000 in reductions to the Office of Professional Accountability (i.e., half the OPA’s budget). “You’re going to save so much money… That’s a lot of officers you could hire, so [that] the hiring freeze [at SPD] could [end],” Ward concluded.

Outfitting all SPD officers with cameras would cost somewhere in the range of $600,000.

It sounds like the city's waiting on another couple of companies to pitch their camera systems before the discussion moves any further.