- Delays in supplying body cameras to police in
Kenosha , Wisconsin means that there is no officer footage of Sunday's shooting ofJacob Blake , according to the Associated Press (AP). - Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back on Sunday, in circumstances that are now being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
- The incident was captured on camera by an onlooker in cellphone footage that was widely shared, and which has sparked protests.
- Kenosha officials unanimously approved body cameras for police in 2017, the AP reported, but regulatory questions and budget restrains mean they are not due to arrive until 2022.
- "The body camera footage on this one would have told right from wrong right away," one councilmember told the AP of Sunday's shooting.
Kenosha officials approved body cameras for the city's police force three years ago, but put off supplying them until 2022, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The delay means that there is no officer video record of the police shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday.
The incident, in which Blake, a Black man, was shot seven times in the back as he attempted to get into his car, was recorded and shared on social media by an onlooker across the street.
The footage has sparked protests and civil unrest across the city. A curfew was imposed until Tuesday morning local time, and on Monday the National Guard was deployed on the orders of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.
However, there is much that is not yet known about the circumstances of the shooting. The state's Department of Justice has launched an investigation which aims to provide a report within 30 days.
Although Kenosha police have cameras in their squad cars, it is unclear whether any car footage captured the shooting.
Rocco LaMacchia, chairman of Kenosha council's public safety committee, told the AP: "The body camera footage on this one would have told right from wrong right away."
County Board member Zach Rodriguez told local newspaper The Kenosha News on Sunday that the questions raised by the Blake shooting emphasize the need for police body cameras.
"This situation what happened here today, whether it ends up being justified or not, this highlights the need for the city, the mayor especially, to address the situation this year with this budget," he told the paper.
The AP reported that law enforcement and city leaders unanimously endorsed body cameras in March 2017.
However, budget constraints and regulatory queries meant that supplying them was postponed until 2022, the AP said.
The holdup was partly due to an absence of regulations from Wisconsin authorities on data storage, privacy issues, and public records, according to the AP. Regulations for the cameras were signed into law by gov. Tony Evers in February, the agency reported.
Funding shortfalls further pushed the date back to 2022, the AP said. Storage costs as well as the cost of the cameras themselves are often beyond police departments' ordinary budgets, according to Steven Casstevens, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
"There's a demand to defund the police. Yet the flip side is that people are demanding body cameras," he told the AP. "You can't have it both ways."
Nonetheless, LaMacchia, the Kenosha public safety chairman, said that the shooting was likely to move the issue to the top of the council's agenda.
"We have moved it back so many times," he told the agency. "I got a feeling this is going to move up on the ladder really fast because of what's going on around the United States right now. Body cameras are a necessity. There's no doubt about it."
Business Insider has contacted Kenosha Police and City Council for further comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.