BURNET, Texas -- Thanks to a donation from a Burnet resident, the Burnet Police Department became the latest Central Texas police department requiring officers to wear body cameras.
After Burnet Police Chief Paul Nelson told Burnet resident Stella Pelej he was going to city council to ask for funding for cameras for his entire department, Pelej expressed an interest in helping out financially.
"She said she wanted to donate money toward some type of equipment," Nelson said.
Pelej donated $4,000 to the effort.
"He said, 'Well, in a couple of weeks I'm going to go to city council asking for funding for personal cameras,' and I said, 'This is exactly what I'm thinking about,'" Pelej said.
Currently, school resource officer Larry Lamb is the only Burnet officer wearing a body camera. Lamb said like a gun or handcuffs, the camera makes him feel safer, knowing his words or actions won't be wrongly used against him.
"With these cameras, once you've turned them on, you'll have audio and video wherever you're standing," Lamb said. "I think it's more protection for the victims, for whoever you're talking to and the officers."
Within minutes of shooting, the video is uploaded onto a computer. It's this kind of efficiency and convenience that's convinced Chief Nelson the cameras are worth it.
The department now has 15 cameras, one for each patrol officer plus a few other departments like investigations and animal patrol, it plans on keeping them for at least the next three years at a cost of $4,500 per year.
"It puts them in a different, I think different frame of mind to do their job when they don't have to worry about what the story is going to end up," Pelej said.
The department expects it'll have room for the cameras in its budget for the second and third years. Officers will begin wearing them by the end of this week or early next week.
