Donation Lets Madison Put Body Cameras On Cops Two Years Early

Officers at the Wauwatosa police department wear body cameras that hook onto the pockets of their uniforms. Angela Major/WPR

Madison’s mayor says all the city’s public-facing police officers will be wearing body cameras by the end of 2027.

That’s sooner than previously expected, thanks to a $350,000 donation from the Madison Community Foundation.

The city’s proposed body camera program still needs approvals from Madison’s Common Council, but Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she believes those will pass.

“There is broad support for this on the Council,” Rhodes-Conway said Thursday at a news conference.

Across Wisconsin and the country, body-camera use is near-universal among large law enforcement agencies.

But in Madison, the only officers who wear them are on the SWAT team or motorcycle unit. In recent months, however, public pressure has been growing for city officers to wear the cameras on a more widespread basis. That’s after a Madison police officer on July 22 fatally shot Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man.

Wisconsin’s Department of Justice has been tasked with investigating that incident. Investigators are expected to review video footage, including cellphone video shot by multiple bystanders. But no body camera footage is available, since the officers involved weren’t outfitted with those devices.

Previously, Rhodes-Conway has supported a pilot program that tested out body cameras on a limited scale, but she stopped short of supporting the cameras on a permanent or department-wide basis.

Her public position changed after a police officer shot Ruiz. The day after the shooting, Rhodes-Conway announced her support for the police chief’s body camera request. That proposal involved phasing in the cameras over three years, so that they could be used department-wide by the end of 2029.

People hold signs as they listen to speakers at a vigil for Corey Ruiz on Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Mayor points to budget constraints

According to Rhodes-Conway, budget constraints kept the city from trying to move faster on body camera adoption.

“A three-year rollout is not an ideal thing for a program like this because it is just simply not fair to have one police district have cameras and others not,” she said. “I am really grateful and I am very relieved that we’re able to do this all in one year.”

The $350,000 one-year grant will help cover initial operating costs. That includes most of the program’s software costs, as well as funding to hire two IT specialists and one forensic analyst.

Additionally, city officials have proposed allocating more than $400,000 in capital expenses to pay for the cameras. Officials hope half of those equipment costs will be covered by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, while the other half will need to come from the city.

Ruiz family, Al Sharpton have called for body cameras

Attorneys for the Ruiz family have urged Madison police to start wearing body cameras department-wide.

And during Ruiz’s funeral service in Madison, the civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton echoed those calls as he delivered Ruiz’s eulogy.

“What happened to the cameras on these cops?” Sharpton asked the congregation. “What are you hiding that we can’t see?”

The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks at Corey Ruiz’s funeral Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, at Fountain of Life Covenant Church in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Madison’s Common Council has debated body camera use for more than a decade and, for years, efforts to outfit all city cops with those cameras have stalled or been voted down.

Some council members have raised concerns about the privacy of community members. Others have warned that the camera footage could lead to “over-policing” if it were used in court to file more charges against people.

Historically, some local activists, including those with the left-wing group Freedom Inc. have spoken out against body cameras during public meetings.

Madison’s interim police monitor, Aeiramique Glass, is a vocal supporter of outfitting all city officers with body cameras. The police monitor is an appointed position, intended to provide a check on the police department.

Madison’s current police Chief John Patterson and his predecessor, Shon Barnes, have likewise pushed the city to adopt department-wide body cameras. Additionally, Madison’s body camera proposal has the support of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a union representing the city’s officers.

“We know that body-worn cameras are not the tool that will fix every strained relationship,” Patterson said Thursday. “(But) they absolutely can play an important role in rebuilding trust and improving transparency.”

Although Madison’s police force has more than 400 officers, the city is planning to purchase 220 body cameras. Those cameras would be pooled, so that officers can wear them while they’re on their shifts. Any uniformed officer who has direct contact with the community would be required to wear them — that includes patrol, community policing, neighborhood and traffic officers, Patterson said.

“The expectation will be they’re wearing them when they’re on the street,” the chief said.

Earlier this month, Madison’s Common Council President Sabrina Madison created a working group to study body camera policy and other issues.

Madison is the second-largest city in Wisconsin and the largest in Dane County.

Within the Dane County Sheriff’s Department, only deputies in the county’s west precinct wear body cameras. The department got those cameras as part of a pilot, but the sheriff hopes that camera use can be expanded department-wide with the approval of county or federal funding, a Dane County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said.

Madison mayor: City cops will get body cams sooner than expected was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.