In an era of growing distrust for law enforcement, police departments nationwide — including the Bellingham Police Department — are taking steps to increase transparency, accountability and legitimacy to the community by requiring officers to wear body cameras. Western’s University Police Sgt. Bianca Smith said adding these cameras to the school’s department is inevitable. “I do see cameras in our future,” Smith said. “I can’t say when, but this is the trend of law enforcement. This is the expectation of the public.” By July 1, 2016, all uniformed officers in the Bellingham Police Department will be equipped with body cameras, Lt. Bob Vander Yacht said. “We really want the Bellingham Police Department to be considered to be a very progressive department,” Vander Yacht said. “If the cameras help our community in any way, then we want to do that.” Vander Yacht said the Bellingham Police Department is a leader in Washington for full distribution of body cameras and wouldn’t be surprised if the University Police were to follow suit. Western’s University Police Department doesn’t own body cameras and their officers are not required to wear them at this moment. Smith said smaller agencies, such as the university police, will watch and learn from larger agencies like the Bellingham Police Department. The University Police tried using body cameras about five years ago when the technology was still new, Smith said. She explained the cameras at the time were bulky and had a limited point-of-view compared to the more compact models the city police are currently using. “I think it’s very beneficial, the transparency of how we do our jobs and what we experience so that it’s not really an ‘us’ and ‘them,’” Smith said. “It’s almost like going on a ridealong.” Junior Riley Ochs said the university police should be required to use body cameras, but not out of distrust. He said stressful situations can make it hard for police to remember all of the details, and the body cameras can film the whole encounter. “I think it’s a good idea for anyone involved in law enforcement,” Ochs said. “It’s kind of a good way to ensure what’s going on in any situation they might handle.” Other colleges are requiring its officers to wear body cameras, including Arizona State University. ASU and Western are both public institutions, but Western has a student enrollment of just over 15,000, while ASU had an enrollment of nearly 70,000 students in 2014, according to the ASU’s website. To put that into perspective, the city of Bellingham had a population of just over 83,000 in 2015 and has 115 officers. Western currently employs 15 commissioned officers, compared to ASU’s 75. Smith said money is one of the main factors holding back the University Police from using body cameras. “I don’t think it’s just a one time thing to just buy the cameras and equip the officers,” Smith said. “You’ve got to give consideration to the data storage and the maintenance of where data storage is kept.” ASU Police Department spokeswoman Nicole Franks said in an email that it cost ASU about $400 to equip each officer with a body camera. Franks said there are additional expenses, including the cost for docking stations and data storage.