SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — The Schenectady Police Department will soon have a new tool to help protect themselves in the line of duty.

Thanks to a $165,000 grant, by the end of the year, officers will be using body cameras. City Council voted to approve the grant earlier this week. 

The Bureau of Justice Assistance is providing the grant and the city will match the funds so the department can implement the cameras. 

Currently, Schenectady police officers only wear microphones and utilize dash cameras in their vehicles. 

Assistant Police Chief Michael Seber says securing these funds has been a long time in the making, but once complete 110 officers will be wearing the body cameras. 

Seber also believes the body cameras will help solve cases. 

"Every time we can document something in real time it helps us," Seber said. "It doesn't give somebody the opportunity to change their story, doesn't give somebody to change the dynamics of a room and how it looks and so forth."

He also says acquiring the body cameras and servers and implementing the program could take about 9 months.