QUESTION: Has the local sheriff’s office begun field testing body cameras for its deputies and jailers after years of resisting this now commonplace law enforcement technology?
ANSWER: The office of Alamance County’s sheriff is indeed preparing to equip its jailers and patrol deputies with their own body-worn cameras. At the moment, however, this tech is not even at the beta testing stage, and it’s unclear just how long it will be before the new cameras are ready for prime time.
Byron Tucker, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, insisted that the agency is currently at square one with this technology.
“We’re still trying to determine what’s the best camera and what’s compatible with the computer system we have,” Tucker explained in an interview earlier this week. “Then, we’ll have to go through the bid process, and we haven’t written policies for any of this stuff. So, we’re light years from having anything yet.”
The sheriff’s office has nevertheless crossed a figurative Rubicon in the proposed introduction of body cameras – a once innovative accessory that has become standard issue at many other law enforcement agencies.
For many years, Alamance County’s sheriff Terry Johnson had resisted calls to implement this technology due to concerns about liability, digital storage, and the cost of the equipment itself.
The last of these three objections recently resolved itself when Alamance County received a grant to introduce body cameras at both the county jail and in the sheriff’s patrol division. Earlier this year, the county manager released a capital improvement plan that allocates $712,775 in grant revenue for these new cameras. This allocation went on to become part of the annual budget which received a nod from the county’s board of commissioners in June.
Tucker insisted that the purchase of this equipment is merely one step that the sheriff’s office will have to go through before it goes live with the new cameras. Even so, the plan is that the cameras will eventually grace the lapel of every deputy who goes out on patrol as well as every jailer who watches over the county’s inmates.
THE PUBLIC ASKS: Have a question about a matter of public record? Call The Alamance News at (336) 228-7851; write to the newspaper at P.O. Box 431, Graham, NC 27253; or e-mail alamancenews@mail.com.
If it’s a topic in the public domain — a matter of public record, including issues of government, courts, etc. — we’ll try to find the answer and print it in ‘The Public Asks’ column. (Please furnish as much complete and specific information as possible.)
Note: Issues regarding businesses — including salaries, policies, and practices — are usually not matters of public record, unless they are the subject of governmental or regulatory action, a court suit, or law enforcement activity.
