I don't have the math to work this out properly, but consider the storage requirements for my department alone.
We currently have just shy of 700 officers. Assume that the majority are patrol (because they are.)
5 Precincts (well, techinically 6, but Precinct 6 is a half-strength boondoggle, brought about because rich folks screamed and cried that they weren't receiving as much police presence in the unincorporated county as the inner city areas.... because oddly enough, we ride the calls we're dispatched to, and patrol more heavily in areas of high call volume. Weird.)
Each precinct has 3 watches, working 8 hour shifts.
Each watch is allotted an average of 15 officers.
15 x 3 x 5 x 8 = 1800 hours of raw footage PER DAY, not counting special operations, overtime etc.
1800 x 7 = 12600 hours of raw footage each week. 655,200 hours each year.
When you consider that footage for misdemeanor cases alone needs to be kept for 3 years, some felony cases has to be kept indefinitely (murder, rape), you're already asking a humongous amount of storage. To say nothing of needing to REVIEW. EVERY. MINUTE. of those hours, whenever a case needs evidence saved. Who does that? Who pays the analysts to go over that footage and save the specific areas of evidentiary value? Who photoshops out the officer's genitalia whenever they're going to the bathroom?
And that's not even getting in to the power requirements. At maximum charge, a new battery pack lasts approximately 4 hours, if activated constantly. And that's being generous.
This is, of course, assuming that every officer's camera is functioning correctly, with the camera, the battery pack, and the wire running between the two all kept in perfect working order. And the bluetooth connection to the phone that allows us to review and tag our videos (NOT edit or delete them) is functioning correctly.
We activate our body cameras whenever we interact with the public. If there is ever any question brought to our chain of command, and we don't have camera footage of the incident, the complaint is automatically sustained, per our chief's order. It's in OUR BEST INTERESTS to document every encounter.
My Axon Flex body-worn camera has a 30 second buffer that is saved as soon as I activate the camera. The previous 30 seconds of footage is then saved, in addition to the recording itself, to be uploaded after being tagged with a title and case number (if applicable). This is the handy little feature that just burned 3 Baltimore City officers who were caught staging drugs at a scene. Allegedly, they were setting it up to reflect how they found things, but that doesn't fucking matter. Those 3 scumbags are getting (rightfully) fried because of it. Body cameras work.
I turn it off when I go to the bathroom because I accidently got to share my wedding tackle with a sergeant who made my life hell for WEEKS afterwards. I reactivate it when I'm done washing my hands.
And this is just my department, a mid-sized one for a mid-sized metropolitan area. Consider the requirements for something like NYPD, whose ACADEMY class recently graduated almost as many rookies as MY ENTIRE DEPARTMENT.
Body cameras are fantastic. I love having mine. It's covered me so many times when I've received frivolous complaints, or deterred the cockwombles from acting up in the first place. But it's not infallible, it's not perfect, and will ALWAYS be contingent on human interaction, until we start deploying Robocops. Because that's what the public needs - departments full of "officers" who are incapable of utilizing discretion, cite and arrest for everything, and never take human needs or necessities into consideration.
I wonder why I come in here sometimes. Some of the comments in here are despicable.