A pilot program equipping some officers in the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office with body cameras is slated for a rollout no later than the spring.
Sheriff Mike Williams said Tuesday the program using up to six vendors will have 100-300 officers wearing cameras for what could be up to a six-month trial period.
“As soon as we can get it off the ground,” Williams said at a special session of City Council’s Public Health & Safety Committee. “Sooner than later.”
The camera-clad officers won’t be confined to high-crime areas, either. Instead, they’ll be positioned around the city to discover “what issues we have in different parts,” Williams said.
And while there has been some pushback to cameras from officers in some jurisdictions around the U.S., Williams said “probably 90 percent” of the local force is in favor of the program.
He bases that on conversations he’s had with officers and talks during combined roll calls, in which he and other leaders speak with every uniformed officer.
The pilot program isn’t expected to cost the city or Sheriff’s Office anything.
The rollout comes at a time when law enforcement agencies across the country are being pressured by community groups to employ some form of camera system.
Those calls have grown louder the past couple of years after high-profile incidents of police-involved shootings of African-Americans.
Locally, the Sheriff’s Office has heard those demands from parts of the community after the May death of Vernell Bing Jr.
The unarmed 22-year-old black man was shot by an officer after a car chase ended with Bing ramming his car into the patrol cruiser, then fleeing.
The FBI is overseeing that investigation at Williams’ request.
“It’s overdue,” said Isaiah Rumlin, president of NAACP’s Jacksonville branch, of officers wearing body cameras.
He said Tuesday that calls for body cameras are a result of the lack of trust between law enforcement and the community as a whole.
The program Williams plans to implement, said Rumlin, is “going in the right direction.”
Rumlin said he hopes the program could happen sooner than spring.
City Council President Lori Boyer told Williams as much, too, saying that a spring start date followed by four to six months of the program being in place might be a problem when crafting next year’s budget.
Based on the results, Williams expects to incorporate costs for any permanent program in fiscal year 2017-18.
How much that could cost, Williams said, isn’t known at this point.
The earlier that is known, the better for the budgeting process.
Boyer said she doesn’t want to be in an either/or situation, where a late-arriving dollar amount for cameras would mean cutting out services elsewhere.
Federal funding is being pursued to help offset future costs. Williams said other jurisdictions have received grants of up to $1 million in one-time money, which could be used to help buy cameras.
As for the program itself, Williams said by using equipment with varying image quality and line-of-site, the Sheriff’s Office will be able to determine what qualities are needed for a requests for proposals after the pilot.
Williams said one early observation from other jurisdictions using similar programs was a reduction in complaints about officers.
The sheriff said police act better when they’re on camera. Citizens do, too, he added.
He provided a quick story told to him by Frank Mackesy, University of North Florida police department chief and a former undersheriff. Campus police wear body cameras.
A woman pulled over for speeding on campus began giving the officer a bit of an attitude about the situation.
When she was informed by the officer the event was being recorded, her belligerence quickly turned to cooperation.
All because of being on camera.
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