All Chicago Police patrol officers now outfitted with bodycams

Every Chicago Police patrol officer is now outfitted with a body camera.

More than 7,000 district-assigned officers, tactical officers and supervisors are equipped with body cameras, making Chicago the largest deployment of body cameras in the nation.

“In addition to protecting the rights of the people that we serve, these devices help us take a look at what we’re doing right and where we can improve,” Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Sunday at the Grand Central District station.

The pilot program was launched in the Shakespeare District on the Northwest Side in 2015 and was expanded to six more districts in 2016.

The initial rollout was planned over two years, but at the end of 2016 the expansion was expedited and the rollout was completed one year ahead of schedule.

The final four police districts to receive cameras were Calumet, Near West, Albany Park and Grand Central.

While making the announcement, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pointed to an incident that was captured on a body camera when U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush was pulled over last year in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.

Rush filed a complaint claiming he was racially profiled; the officers were later cleared.

“Congressman Rush had a different remembrance of the incident,” Emanuel said. “The officer was right in the sense of how things played out.”