NOTTINGHAMSHIRE police have been given £1.7 million from Whitehall to fund body cameras - but leading figures say they would rather have spent the cash on officers.
The Home Office announced the successful bidders for its £50 million Innovation Fund on July 30.
Nottinghamshire was among eight forces to share £4 million of funding towards the body cameras, which will record officers' interactions with the public.
But despite Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping saying it is "a great scheme," he felt the money could have been used more effectively elsewhere.
He said: "At the end of the day I would rather have seen the money spent on more officers and PCSOs."
"We've got quite a lot of money from the Innovation Fund but it has been top sliced by the Government.
"I have had this argument before. I wanted to make a deal that I wouldn't apply for any funding if I could keep my Police Grant."
The £1.7 million will be split between five forces - Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire - with Notts taking the lead and deciding where money shall be spent.
A significant investment will also have to be made into back office systems to ensure the on-body devices' smooth operation.
The Home Office has also granted Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire £2.9 million to create a new shared IT system.
We asked both the Home Office and Nottinghamshire Police how funding would be split between forces and how much would focus on body cameras. Neither was able to break the figures down.
Together, the two pots of money could pay for 11 more police officers over 10 years, based on Nottinghamshire Police's average salary of £41,500 for a beat bobby of five years' experience.
Phil Matthews, chairman of The Nottinghamshire Police Federation said officers welcomed the technology but would rather see more colleagues patrolling streets.
"From an officer's point of view they are good to safeguard them as they provide first hand evidence for the courts," he said. "We trialled them in Broxtowe around six years ago and found an increase in guilty pleas, which save judges' and magistrates' time.
"But cameras don't help detect any more crime. More officers could."
Mr Matthews said bringing in cameras shows a lack of trust in the force, which he thought was unwarranted.
"Our members have nothing to hide or fear," he said. "In the trial, we also found a massive reduction in complaints, which are often malicious and unfounded."
Policing Minister Mike Penning said: "Nottinghamshire chose to place a bid for body warm cameras and were successful. These cameras are powerful pieces of technology used to gather evidence and investigate crime.
"This Government has consolidated funding streams and removed ring-fences to give PCCs and chief constables greater freedom and flexibility to choose how they use their resources.
"Nottinghamshire has shown an ability to make savings while still cutting crime – recorded crime has fallen by 27 per cent since June 2010."
