El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputies To Get Body Cameras

El Paso County Commissioners have been talking about body cameras for Sheriff’s deputies for months, and yesterday, they voted to spend almost 2 million dollars on body cams, tasers, and a 5 year unlimited data storage plan. Commissioners say this move will hold law enforcement officers and the public accountable for their actions.

The discussion about body cams came to the forefront when the Sheriff’s office went to Commissioners Court to get replacement tasers. A deal by a company called Taser International for free Tasers with the purchase of body cameras and a commitment to the back-end video and data storage system to manage all the video and more made things more attractive for the County.

It will be a few weeks to get the body cams and the policies on how they will be used up and running.
Sheriff Richard Wiles said the privacy of deputies and transparency on their actions will play a part in the way the cameras are used.

Wiles said there will be times when officers are sitting in cars, talking to another officer or talking on the phone and he doesn’t want their privacy invaded.