Daytona Beach, FL – The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office takes another step towards outfitting many of its deputies with body cameras.
Starting on Monday, VCSO begins a 60-day trial run with 2 different kinds of body cameras, with the goal of picking one of those to be the agency’s system of choice moving forward.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson says there’s no set timeline for having the cameras, but he’s thinking it will likely be sometime in 2016 since the Volusia County Council will have to approve the purchase of over 180 cameras after the trial period is over and the law enforcement agency makes its decision on which model to use.
“While they won’t answer every question or settle every controversy, there’s no doubt that body cameras are great tools for capturing and documenting rapidly-evolving events as they unfold,” Johnson added. “I’m confident that the benefits to the community, judges and juries and officers in the field will be well worth the cost.”
A select group of deputies that patrol the northwest side of the county have been chosen to test the cameras and each of the deputies in that group will have the chance to work with both systems at some point during the trial period.
One of the models VCSO is considering is the Taser model from Axon Flex, the same one currently used by the Daytona Beach Police Department (pictured above). The other is the FirstVu model made by Digital Ally (pictured below).
VCSO spokesman Gary Davidson says that the costs to implement either system will vary somewhat, but it should be around $1.5 million dollars in the first 5 years, with all the money coming from criminal forfeiture funds.
Another $1.5 million will likely be needed after the first 5 years to upgrade the storage space needed to house all the body camera video in order for VCSO to be able to comply with public record requests, per Davidson.
VCSO is developing a policy so that certain situations involving deputies and the public are always recorded, but the cameras will not be recording every given moment of a deputy’s day.
Among the times those cameras will be on is during in-progress crimes, arrests, traffic stops, traffic crashes, use of force incidents, foot and motor vehicle pursuits as well as certain criminal investigative contacts.
Johnson says VCSO has been working with the State Attorney’s Office to make sure that deputies know how to use the cameras in case the video is ever needed for trial.
“Body cameras are another tool to help ensure accountability and transparency in all that we do,” Johnson stated. “Once we start using the cameras and document what we do, it should eliminate many of the questions that arise because the recorded evidence will be there for everyone to see.”
Johnson admitted that it’s taken a while to get the body cameras in place because he wants to be sure that all issues related to the body cameras are thoroughly examined before VCSO buys anything.
“This is a hugely important issue that involves a significant commitment of resources,” Johnson noted. “It demands a comprehensive, thoughtful and deliberative decision-making process in order to ensure that the public’s interests are protected in this very important decision.”
Over 150 deputies will be assigned body cameras once they are ready to go, mainly going to those in patrol units.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.