Ledyard — A proposal to add police body cameras to the Ledyard Police Department will get a closer look by councilors, who wanted more information about the potential hidden costs of storing and managing hundreds of hours of police video.

Many details about the body cameras usage policy are yet to be decided, but Ledyard Police Chief John Rich said he wanted to inform the Finance Committee, a subcommittee of the Town Council, of a state law reimbursing police for buying body cameras and one year of upkeep, during its meeting Wednesday.

However, councilors said they'd like to see a detailed five-year estimate of the upkeep and staff time that would be required to maintain the large video database before buying the cameras.

"My concern is the proverbial carrot (grant) is dangled for the hardware, we take the 'carrot' and end up opening Pandora's Box financially," Councilor Fred Allyn III, chairman of the Finance Committee, wrote in an email.

Rich, the former commander of the Madison Police Department, which uses body cameras, said the footage was useful when he was a member of that department, enabling him to swiftly resolve a citizen's complaint about a traffic stop and review instances where officers used force on a suspect.

"I basically want to be current in the industry and be able to protect my officers, as well," Rich said. The body cameras "do assist on cutting down on complaints with officers and they also add evidentiary value to what police are doing and investigating any time officers have to use force."

But Rich said he understands the committee's desire to get more information before any action is taken and will bring his five-year estimate with the complete costs of body camera ownership to the Finance Committee during its next meeting.

Locally, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Police Department is the only one in the region to equip all officers with body cameras, though the Connecticut State Police have started wearing them as well. Only 11 departments statewide have taken advantage of the reimbursement.

The department must purchase the cameras before July 1, 2017; next year, by law, state reimbursement will drop to 50 percent of the purchase price.

Rich estimates 24 body cameras from Allen, Texas-based Watch Guard Video would cost $58,935.

But news accounts and research about the prohibitively high cost of storage options led the Finance Committee to request more information.

Allyn said he's "not sold" on the expense of body-worn cameras for small towns like Ledyard.

"My immediate concerns (are) I see a higher staffing level and a certainly higher storage level," Allyn said at Wednesday's meeting.

He said the storage, administration, training and equipment replacement, along with responding to Freedom of Information requests, are all additional expenses that come with the use of body cameras. He pointed to a news report about the additional costs incurred and staff added when Duluth, Minn., added body cameras.

"I'm not at all comfortable saying this town can afford more" in light of municipal aid cuts, he said.

While Councilor Bill Saums said he also was concerned about the potential cost of managing the files, he said there could be some financial benefits, as well.

"I think that the cost of reduction in liability to the town has a dollar value," he said.

Currently state law mandates that the video from body cameras be maintained for 90 days at a minimum and spells out a number of situations in which the video is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Videos used as evidence must be maintained for four years, and officers also are required to be trained annually in the use of the equipment.

Last year, the Berlin Police Department considered adding body cameras full-time but became discouraged with the storage cost when the state law was enacted.

"Everybody's trying to maintain budgets and that becomes very difficult," Berlin Police Chief Paul Fitzgerald told the Associated Press in September. "It's the long-term costs of unfunded mandates."

Rich said that there are many options available to law enforcement, but primarily storage systems are divided between storing the video in the police department on a hard drive, and cloud-based subscription systems, like those offered by Taser International, which offers a plan that charges a fee per camera.

Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Chief of Police William Dittman said his department's storage system cost an estimated $15,000 and the department hasn't had to expand capacity in its first year of using the cameras. The department retains records for 180 days, and immediately makes a hard copy of any files that are part of an investigation.

Dittman said the footage has been useful in a few instances, such as when a man with a gun confronted tribal police and later committed suicide. Audio recordings from an officer's body camera helped in the investigation.

"It's never been detrimental since we've had it," Dittman said of the cameras.

By Chief Rich's estimate, his department would need around 12 terabytes of video storage, which could be added for around $3,000, according to town information management technician Justin Dube. That number reflects about 1.5 hours of recorded video per 8-hour shift, which would be retained for 90 days. The Ledyard Police Department currently has 20 officers.

There is a secure database in the new police department headquarters that could accommodate the new storage.

Dube said that if the town were to go with vendor-supplied local storage system, it would cost closer to $7,000.

A vendor "might have a support fee to keep them managing a server (but) I don't think anything else," he said.

Backups could cause costs to rise. Councilor Saums said he would like to see off-site storage for sensitive data, even if it's just next door at Town Hall.

He noted that the cost of storage has been falling for the last few decades, but agreed with Allyn that they want to be sure about what they're getting into before purchasing.

"I think all of us collectively should do additional research, understanding that the deadline for this upcoming grant cycle is rapidly approaching," Allyn said.

n.lynch@theday.com