Minnesota State Patrol to begin wearing body cameras next week

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KVRR) – The Minnesota State Patrol says starting next week, 40 state troopers will be among the first to wear body cameras on a full-time basis.

All troopers are scheduled to be outfitted with body cameras by June 30, 2022 in accordance with a law signed by Gov. Tim Walz earlier this year.

This is the largest deployment of body-worn cameras in the state and will include approximately 645 troopers, in addition to Capitol Security officers and Commercial Vehicle Inspectors.  The cameras will be activated during any contact with citizens such as traffic stops or crash investigations.

In addition to the body cameras, a new camera system will be installed in every trooper’s squad in order for camera technology to be uniform and synched.

In 2020, troopers interacted with citizens 411,316 times, including 325,505 traffic stops and more than 30,000 crashes.