Aurora Police launching new camera program; hundreds of body cameras, dashcams, and more

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The city of Aurora on Monday announced a big change to its public safety measures, partly by installing multimillion-dollar cameras across the police force.

CBS 2's Marissa Parra reports they've done a complete overhaul, with every Aurora police officer now equipped with body cameras, and updated the way officers use their Taser systems and squad cars.

It's part of the launch of TAP, their new Transparency and Accountability Program.

They have been seriously looking into body-worn cameras since 2017, and completed training and outfitting all 285 officers with them at the end of January.

A total of 150 squad cars will now have their own cameras, streamlined together with body-worn cameras.

Now, even officers' Tasers will have their own new features. Turning on the Taser will activate the officer's cameras, and cameras for the officer, and they have a new de-escalation feature.

Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross said, after the riots of 2020, he realized just how much both the public and the officers needed the cameras to both feel safe on the street

"I think that the public would feel a little bit better at us being transparent as an agency," Cross said. "Nowadays, seeing is believing, and because a lot of agencies weren't equipped with body cameras, officers' words might not have been taken as the gospel as it used to be. So now body cameras allow the public to be able to trust what the officer is saying, or what the officer is experiencing at that time."

Cross said body cameras also will protect officers against false accusations of misconduct.

Aurora officials were hoping to roll out TAP sooner, but say they too were impacted by some of the pandemic production delays. They're still waiting for the complete rollout of squad car cameras.

The price tag? Roughly $4 million for everything; including 315 cameras – including tasers, squad cars, body worn cameras, software, installation, and data storage.

Officials said they've already put some of the footage from cameras to use.