CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – The Clay County Sheriff’s Office is planning to invest millions in body-worn cameras for deputies.
Right now, it is in the process of testing different body-worn camera models and developing policies around how they’ll be used.
News4JAX met up with Deputy Mike White, who is testing an Axon body camera, while he was out on the road in Middleburg.
“What we’re doing is basically we’re giving feedback for anything that we believe is that’s helpful,” White said.
He said deputies are testing different models for 90 days each.
The model he had on Monday needs to be manually activated and then manually turned off before the deputy manually logs the video.
But Deputy White said the extra steps haven’t slowed him down.
“It’s literally, you saw it, what, a minute?” White said.
He said there are features available where a body-worn camera will activate automatically.
“It can go from if you draw your weapon, it can activate it, you draw your taser, it could activate it, or you could activate it on your own,” White said. “They’re trying to see exactly what all comes with it and what’s all available. And then based on like, like anything, based on money and what options they have, they’re going to try to pick the best options for use for the department.”
He said overall he thinks body-worn cameras are a great tool.
“I have no issues whatsoever in recording any interaction that I have with anybody,” he said.
White said when it comes to the possibility that some deputies might not want to turn on their cameras or act like they forgot, deputies are expected to do the right thing.
“The sheriff expects you to do the right thing,” White said. “And the policy, I think, is going to be written that everybody’s subject to making a mistake. I’ve made mistakes, you make mistakes. You can forget once, or twice, you continually forget, there’s something there’s something up, and I’m sure they’ll address that.”