Police in the central Illinois village of Rantoul are joining the growing of number of law enforcers using body cameras.

Reports indicate Rantoul's police department got a large, anonymous donation in 2011 for the research and purchase of the body cameras.

That was well before the popularity of such cameras started to surge this August. That's when white police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Wilson was not wearing a body camera.

That case touched off at times violent protests in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb where demonstrations turned up again in recent days after a local grand jury declined to indict Wilson.

Brown's family has pressed for U.S. police departments to make body cameras required equipment.