The Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners approved funding for body cameras for the Sant Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
This will be the first time deputies in the county will be wearing body cams. Sheriff Bob Johnson initially asked for funding last month.
As soon as February, if you encounter a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s deputy, you’ll notice they’ll be wearing a body camera.
Sheriff Johnson said it will cost nearly $1 million for 200 body cameras. They will enter into a five-year contract with Motorola — this cost will cover the body cameras, software, storage, loss, and damage.
“This is a first,” Johnson said. “It’s going to have some growing pains. We are going to have to fix some things. I am sure tweaks some things we are looking forward to February having them all out.”
The sheriff will first have to sit down with his command staff to outline the exact policies and how the body cameras will be used.
“Things like when do you have to turn them on and off? Things you can record and things you can’t record and that kind of stuff. Once we hammer out all of that, we are going to have the officers in for training.”
Initially, Johnson said he was against body cameras because he wanted to protect people’s privacy.
“The Florida legislature fixed that,” he said. “So now we have to redact certain things out of body camera footage. So if I do go into your house on a call that’s redacted and not public record.”
He believes the body cameras will not only benefit deputies, but citizens as well.
“This will make officers act more professional if they haven’t in the past,” Johnson said. “This will make their performance better as well. So it’s twofold. It’s not just to video the citizen, it’s also for the officers as well.”
