(Photo via bodycameradonations.com)

The Wellton Police Department's request is posted on bodycameradonations.com.

Concerns over interactions between the police and the public have led many police departments to consider body cameras. However, many face funding shortages and must devise other means to purchase the equipment, especially in rural areas.

The Wellton Police Department in Yuma County has become the first law enforcement agency in the state to register on a donation website for body cameras. Sgt. David Rodriguez, who has been with the department for 11 years, coordinates the effort.

As a small rural department, he said Wellton Police Department wasn’t able to take advantage of federal grants that have recently become available.

"For departments as small as us, like 99.9 percent of the chance we don’t qualify due to the fact that we only have six officers," said Rodriguez.

Many police departments are concerned about the technological aspects — namely, storage costs for the video taken by officers. Rodriguez said that isn’t likely to be a problem in a department as small as his.

"Even a two-terabyte external hard drive could hold a lot of video and as the cases get adjudicated and done, we could start disposing of footage that we don’t need no more," he said.

Wellton needs at least $2,000 just to get the cameras rolling and will accept donations of any size from the public.