The  Phoenix City Council is all set to vote on whether to initiate body camera for its police force. The move will cost the city $11.4 million for the coming five years and $5 million for the maintenance every year.

The voting is scheduled to be held during the police session of the  city council on Tuesday, May 17 at 2:30 p.m.

Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski, said that, "It comes down to what are the needs and what are the wants? The wants I want every police officer to have a body camera.”

"The needs at this time are more police officers and more programs to prevent crime, keep kids out of gangs." stressed Nowakowski.

A retired Phoenix police sergeant, Andy Hill, said that, "If you don't have enough patrol officers, overtime goes way up, officers are getting tired just a little more risk when that happens."

"If you don't do body cams you can only add a small number of officers to the total because you have to pay them for salary and benefits for 20 years," said city spokesperson Robbie Sherwood.

According to the city officials, the vote does not have to be  an either or situation. At present, the city is hiring  300 police officers and expected to hire 150 more by the next year.

"It's a win for everybody wanting to know the truth. It's going to pay off in demonstrating the actions of the officers and in a majority of cases it will support them." said Hill.

"You're going to have to hire 30-40 employees that is 30 to 40 people just handling the cameras alone. And then on top of that we're going to buy storage space." said Nowakowski.

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Nandini