PORT ANGELES – The Clallam County sheriff’s department is closer to adding body cameras for its deputies.
This week, Sheriff Brian King led a discussion with county commissioners on outfitting deputies with the body-worn devices. King says his staff has worked through a draft policy outlining the privacy and usage issues. He has included other agencies, defense and prosecuting attorneys and victims advocacy groups, among others.
“As we make contact, we will be advising citizens you’re being audio and video recorded that just comes out right away and it’s built into the policy. One of the things that we wanted to take away from the deputies was just a blanket discretion, we tried to balance that while identifying those locations that we know have sensitive heightened, privacy interest, including your homes, including a medical facilities unless we’re responding to the hospital, because there is there is a threat,” said King.
King says there is a cost benefit to having these cameras in place when it comes to potential litigation in use-of-force cases.
“Between deadly force and just the application of force that we could have one claim upon, which these can these cameras can capture evidence that would lead to a conclusion that. Okay, we acted completely properly, the lack of that evidence could, it could be the difference between an $8 million dollar claim or a $500,00 claim,” said King.
King is asking for commissioners to approve a full-time equivalent public-records specialist to handle an expected increase in records requests with the cameras.
As for equipment, King is recommending using the Axon system and entering into a five-year contract for $220-thousand dollars.