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Sheriff's office considers how to manage all that body camera video

Orange County Sheriff's Office (Dave Conner, Wiki Media)
Orange County Sheriff's Office (Dave Conner, Wiki Media)

The Orange County Sheriff's Office says there are details to consider before deploying body cameras.

Spokesman Angelo Nieves says a preliminary cost estimate for the county is $1.2 million for the first year. That includes 500 cameras for all first responders.

"You also need additional personnel to handle all of this data that is collected on a daily basis from hundreds of officers and deputies."

Attention is on body cameras after recent officer-involved shootings including in Ferguson, Missouri, where a white officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. Here in Orlando a deputy this month shot and injured an unarmed suspect who some witnesses say had his hands up.

Nieves says the Orange County Sheriff's Office already is testing body cameras on a smaller scale. He says the sheriff's office also is considering how to store all the video that is collected and how often the body cameras will be used.

"When you're talking to a citizens. When you're talking to a child. You have victims that you speak to. Are these body cams going to be expected to be kept on or selectively turned on depending on the situation, depending on the encounter?"

Amy Green covered the environment for WMFE until 2023. Her work included the 2020 podcast DRAINED.