Editorial: Full deployment for police body cams

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has opened a window that is welcome by many who were shut out previously. Until March 10, only sole proprietors and businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees can apply.

And, says the Small Business Administration, availability will expand to some excluded from earlier forgivable PPP loans, such as those delinquent with student loans. Note: PPP will expire March 31. Information: www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources.

Joining other cities in stepping up transparency in law enforcement, the Honolulu Police Department expects to wrap up wide-scale outfitting of its officers with body-worn cameras by late March. In recent years, the city has spent millions of dollars on this rollout and a pilot program. Millions more will be spent annually just to store the data and fund personnel to manage the storage.

The next step should be adopting county or state policies specifying when cameras can be deactivated, and imposing penalties for noncompliance. In the absence of effective body-cam rules, some officers may wrongly view transparency as optional.