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Verify: Do Richmond Heights police have body cameras?

Not yet. But a spokesman told 5 On Your Side the department received federal grant money to buy the cameras, and they're in the final stages of implementing them.

After a Richmond Heights police officer shot and killed Terry Tillman on Saturday, many people are asking whether the officer was wearing a body camera.

The answer is no.

5 On Your Side can verify that because Richmond Heights Police Department doesn't have body cameras. Not yet, anyway.

RELATED: What we know about the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Terry Tillman

CLAYTON, Mo. - On Aug. 31, a 23-year-old man was shot and killed by police in St. Louis County after a foot chase that started in the Saint Louis Galleria. St. Louis County Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Ben Granda held a press conference Tuesday evening and released new information about that fatal officer-involved shooting of Terry Tillman, 23.

Police body camera video can help investigators in these officer-involved shooting cases. A department spokesman told 5 On Your Side the department received federal grant money to buy the cameras, and they're in the final stages of implementing them. 

They expect all 40 officers in the department -- everyone except for the chief -- to have those cameras in the next six months.

And more departments in St. Louis County should be armed with body cameras in the coming year.

The Brentwood Police Department told 5 On Your Side it expects to have them by the end of 2019, the Moline Acres police chief said his officers could have them in the next month and St. Louis County Police said they plan to have 700 body cameras in use by the first quarter of 2020.

RELATED: St. Louis County police launch body camera program ahead of Ferguson anniversary

RELATED: St. Louis County Council approves dash, body cameras for police


Rolling out these cameras take time, and the main reason for that is money.

The Richmond Heights spokesman told 5 On Your Side the biggest burden isn't the up-front cost of the cameras, but rather the storage of that video data over time.

That cost was described as "monumental."

RELATED: St. Louis leaders take first step towards police body cameras

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