Another South Florida police agency is jumping on the body camera bandwagon. The Broward Sheriff’s Office has been testing the cameras on some of its deputies, and will soon have 1,500 of them on the streets.
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Body camera video from a traffic stop in Lauderdale Lakes shows a driver screaming relentlessly at the deputy, but he kept his cool and the incident fizzled out.
The cameras fit right on the officers' uniform, showing the perspective seen by the officer. The Broward Sheriff's Office joins Miami-Dade, Miami and Hallandale Police in rolling out the cameras for its deputies.
"This is the right thing to do," Sheriff Israel said. "We're a transparent agency, we're not afraid of what goes on out on the street."
The use of body cameras is a two-way street. They can exonerate or incriminate a particular officer or civilian. They can also provide the full context of an incident, rather than just the few seconds usually captured by a cell phone at the end of a confrontation.
"In society today, everybody has a cellphone and they're able to capture video," said Capt. Jonathan Appel with BSO. "This is going to allow deputies to show that they saw of a particular incident."
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BSO is hoping body cameras will lead to a decrease in complaints and a decrease in use-of-force incidents.
"We realize the public will behave differently when they’re on video, and we expect the deputies to behave differently when they're on video," Appel said.
The body cameras will cost tax payers $1,000 per officer, per year. The department plans to roll out all 1,500 body cameras by this summer, costing about $1.5 million.
