County delays adding cameras
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 5, 2015 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday voted 5-2 to delay spending $34,500 to equip sheriff's deputies with body cameras.
Deputies who serve as school resource officers already have the cameras.
Commissioners also agreed during their budget work session to phase in the hiring of 28 new jail officers as a way to save $150,000 in the county's 2015-16 budget proposal.
"I don't think that everybody at this point has come to the conclusion that body cameras are that necessary here in Wayne County," Commissioner Joe Daughtery said. "It is almost like spending money to solve a problem that doesn't exist."
That is probably what other communities thought as well until they found out otherwise, Commissioner Ed Cromartie said.
Cromartie said he did not want the board to not fund the project just because of the cost.
The county would be spending money on cars and other items and that should include equipment like the cameras that protect deputies, he said.
Cromartie said he wanted to ensure that "both sides of the ledger" are protected, adding that the county should take advantage of every piece of technology possible.
Daughtery said there is another issue that needs to be recognized -- storage of the video recorded by deputies, which will add cost as well, he said.
Then there are legal issues, Daughtery said.
"If it is not activated, is there the possibility of a lawsuit because it failed to activate to record what occurred?" he said. "Then there are interpretations of the recording. In other words, before we jump into this fire pit, let's test the temperature first."
Later in the meeting, Steven Cross, the county's IT Department director, said ample storage space is available at almost no cost to the Sheriff's Office.
Chairman Wayne Aycock asked Sheriff Larry Pierce if he was comfortable with having the body cameras on the school resources officers and in the vehicles and addressing the body camera issue later.
Pierce said that was fine and that he definitely wanted the in-car cameras. Also, the body cameras can be phased in as the board sees fit, he said.
Body cameras on the school resource officers have "saved us a couple of times," he said.
Daughtery made the motion to delay the cameras until at least next year.
Commissioner John Bell offered up an amendment to Daughtery's motion to allow the cameras to be phased in as Pierce, and not commissioners, sees fit to do so.
Bell's amendment was unanimously approved while Daughtery's original motion was approved 5-2, with Bell and Cromartie voting no.
In his budget proposal, Pierce had requested the hiring of 28 additional jailers to operate the new satellite jail to be built on North William Street.
A jail study had recommended 32, Pierce said.
"In some discussions we decided that if we go ahead and maybe do it in phases, rather than waiting until later right at the time we were going to try to open the jail that it would be better," he said. "In those discussions we decided we possibly could go with 18 instead of 28 initially and try to go ahead and get 18 hired in phases and then reanalyze this thing as we got closer to the opening of the jail which may or may not be July 1 of next year depending on the construction process."
It will still require 28 jailers to run the facility, he said.
But hiring in phases could be more productive, Pierce said.
The county budget proposal for 2015-16 had included approximately $450,000 for the 28 new employees.
"We think with what the sheriff is talking about we can cut that by $150,000 so that would cut that to $300,000," County Manager George Wood said.
Daughtery said it was his understanding that the board would leave the sheriff with the flexibility of phasing those 18 employees in as needed.
Commissioner Bill Pate asked about the training the new employees would receive.
"Most of the time Wayne Community College has the training provided at the college," Pierce said. "It is a 10-week program for our detention staff. Then we like to have someone paired up for at least two to three months before we actually release them as a detention officer on their own."
Daughtery's motion to reduce the budget by $150,000 for salaries and benefits was unanimously approved.
Daughtery then questioned the $34,500 for body cameras adding that he thinks it is more important to complete the outfitting of patrol cars with cameras.
Also, there is a promotion going on and the older in-car cameras can be traded in on newer models, he said.
"I hope nobody thinks that the body cam is just to peek in on the police officer," Bell said. "That is a safety issue, too. It protects the police as well as it does anybody else. So I believe if I was out there I would want a body camera on. I think it is a good tool."
"The ones (body cameras) we have requested in the budget actually sync up with your in-car camera," Pierce said. "Our current in-car cameras, they are so old they are no longer supported by technology. So we're having to try and upgrade as we can.
"The body cams we were requesting with this do sync up with them."
The cameras that sync up can be turned on manually or when an officer activates the car's blue lights both the body camera and in-car camera turn on, Pierce said.
If the blue lights are not on, the cameras have to be manually activated, he said.