One hundred fifty-five police officers in Baltimore, Maryland were equipped with body cameras on Monday as part of the city's new pilot program, which aims to enhance the safety of police officers and civilians.

Baltimore's citywide two-month pilot program will test cameras from three different vendors before one is chosen for citywide use starting in February 2016, reports ABC 2 News. The Baltimore Police Department also plans to equip all officers with body cameras over the next couple of years.

During a news conference at police headquarters on Monday, officials explained that officers will be responsible for activating the cameras before interacting with civilians and for uploading the footage to cloud-based storage provided by the vendors. An officer will not be able to delete video, but people can request that officers turn off their cameras if they don't want to be recorded.

Deputy Commissioner Dean Palmere added that the officers with the cameras are operating under the guidelines of a draft policy that has not been released to the public.

"We are working from a draft right now because we want to fine-tune that policy to make sure that, as we experience this pilot program, we're going to learn and the community is going to learn," he said, according to The Baltimore Sun. "We will be transparent moving forward and we will answer the community's questions in regards to what the policy suggests that we do at this point."

Although the Baltimore police officers have the option to turn the body cameras on or off, Palmere said, "Our motto is when in doubt; record it." He added, "If there is a circumstance that warrants an officer to disengage the camera, they will do so per the policy."

According to officer Hannah Perrish, the cameras will help promote transparency and accountability.

"There's two sides to every story, and it's not often the police officer's side really comes out," she said, CBS Baltimore. "The fairness on each side, and if there's not, if there's stuff going wrong that needs to be fixed, that needs to be addressed. I think it will hold everyone a little more accountable."

Palmere described the cameras as a tool to help improve public confidence in law enforcement, in addition to providing "additional evidence that could be used for prosecutorial purposes, enhanced officer safety and decreased citizen complaints."