Pflugerville police will soon be sporting body cameras as the Pflugerville city council approved funding for a five-year contract with vendor Taser International totalling $822,000, to provide body cameras to the police department Aug. 9. In the first year, $262,000 will be paid to the vendor, with $140,000 to be paid over the next four years of the contract. One body camera will be assigned to each officer of the Pflugerville Police Department, including Police Chief Chuck Hooker.  According to the ordinance presented to council, the procurement of the cameras is an effort to increase the transparency of the actions taken by officers, and to help maintain the trust of the citizens. However, Hooker said the cameras are not perfect. The body cameras will require the officer to manually activate recording, Hooker said. There will be policy put in place so that officers will know the appropriate circumstances in which to record as there are instances where cameras are not allowed, such as the interview of a sexual assault victim, he said. He said he anticipates instances where it will not be feasible for the officers to initiate recording. “There will be occasions where the officers will not turn that thing on, sometimes there is just not enough time to do it,” Hooker said.”It’s not your highest priority when somebody takes a swing at you to turn on your camera on; it’s to dodge the swing first.” The council unanimously approved the request to amend the approved budget in order make room for the body camera contract at their Aug. 9 meeting.