Oconee County Sheriff’s Office using Body Cameras

With the announcement last week of an unanimous vote by the Charlotte City Council in favor of body cameras for Charlotte Police Officers, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office remains in many cases ahead of the curve in the use of this technology. Back in May of 2013, the Sheriff’s Office began equipping ten of the deputies in the Road Patrol Division with the TASER AXON Flex body cameras. In 2014, every deputy in the Road Patrol division, as well as two officers from the Warrants Division were equipped with the body cameras, which brings the total of cameras worn to 35 officers. According to a press release issued by the Sheriff’s Office and dated May 20, 2013, the cameras can be clipped to the officers clothing or worn on a special set of glasses. Once the deputy is sent to the scene of a call, they can then press a button on a unit that is carried on their body to record every aspect of the call. The video is uploaded to EVIDENCE.COM, which is an evidence management system, where it is recorded and stored. The website will provide all the data storage that the Sheriff’s Office needs. The video evidence itself belongs to the Sheriff’s Office. The video gives the person watching the point of view from the deputies’ perspective. The cameras will be worn by deputies at all times while they are on duty. The benefits of having officers equipped with the body cameras are to help document the facts and evidence when making cases for arrest and a reduction in the number of complaints against officers. Besides the announcement of body cameras being worn by officers with the Charlotte Police Department, the city of Los Angeles announced late last year that they would be purchasing body cameras for 7,000 of their officers. According to Captain Jeff Underwood of the Road Patrol Division, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office has spent roughly $59,000 for equipment, licensing fees and video storage, which is over two terabytes of data and growing daily since May of 2013. Of that $59,000, the Sheriff’s Office utilized two installments of $12,000 and $22,000 of grant funds from the Edward Byrne DOJ grant. Ultimately, the county has only spent $25,000 of budgetary monies in the past two years to start and maintain the program. In comparison, Charlotte is spending approximately $7 million over five years for their program. “One of the goals for implementing the program is to reduce the number of complaints on both sides of the camera- to improve behavior and relations from the citizens and officers alike. In this respect, to date the program has been a resounding success,” says Captain Underwood. “I have dealt with fewer than five complaints from citizens on officers wearing the cameras. In every instance, the officer was cleared of any wrongdoing, and it didn’t take a lot of resources to complete the investigation. We were able to do in 30 minutes or an hour, what may have taken an investigating officer several days or weeks to do prior to having the cameras, so that is one cost saving measure. Plus, the savings from possible potential litigation is something that perhaps cannot be estimated.” “Being transparent helps law enforcement to earn the trust of the citizens we serve,” says Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw. “We have nothing to hide and the use of body cameras has been a positive experience for our agency.”