Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told a group of county commissioners and other local officials and community members during a virtual forum on policing this week that his agency would be getting body cameras for deputies.
"Our initial conversation is 'Let's get the money to get the servers in place', because right now they're tearing my building apart, they're renovating it. While they're doing that, we'll get the servers to get put back into the building when they get this put back together. Then we're good to go."
The sheriff tells me where the 19 million dollars will come from.
"In the half-cent sales tax, in the 2023-2024 (fiscal) year for it, there was earmarked $22 million for technology for the Sheriff's Office. We're just trying to move some of it up a little bit."
He says the county administrator is on board with the plan. But, Bradshaw reiterates that it will take a while to complete the project.
"From zero to fully engaged could be 36 months, so along the way you're putting them on deputies as you go."
There have been calls for the agency to get body cams from leaders in Lake Worth Beach and other municipalities where PBSO provides law enforcement, in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
The sheriff says the technology will help resolve complaints, improve transparency and strengthen accountability of deputies.
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