PALATKA, Fla. – The Palatka Police Department has purchased body cameras for its officers and has a new policy mandating that they record their calls for service.
That means residents in the city of Palatka will now be recorded whenever they deal with police, and the recordings, for the most part, can be released to the public by request.
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"This past year, with some of the other things that most of us heard about, some of the controversy involving police and citizens, we felt it was a good idea," Palatka Police Chief James Griffith said.
The department bought 22 body cameras that mount to the officers' sunglasses, enough for every patrol officer on the force. The cameras, which cost about $30,000, record wherever the officers look. Police said that offers the closest view of what they see through their own eyes.
By this weekend, the officers will all be recording their encounters with the public. Griffith said he hopes the cameras make the community safer and friendlier.
"The more transparent you are, the more open you are to public scrutiny, the more you welcome inquiries, the better," Griffith said. "Because that is what people expect. We work for the community, so they want to know what (the officers) do. And if that means they want to know exactly what was said or what was done on a call for service, so be it."
The department has used body cameras on and off since 2005, but now every patrol officer is equipped and required to record his or her interactions.
"Personally, from what I have seen so far, people talk to you differently," Officer Csaba Toth said. "Once you let them know that this (device) is recording, they are going to back off a little bit and change how they talk to you."
Paltaka residents interviewed by News4Jax didn't seem to mind.
"It's a good idea," Delvin Jackson said.
"If someone lies about what their story was, they can look back at what was recorded," Rhonda Shivers said.
"It keeps the public safe and keeps law enforcement officers safe," Cory Shivers said.
It will cost several thousand dollars a year to maintain the data storage from the videos, which are stored in a secure cloud.
And just because an incident might have been caught on camera doesn't mean that police will release the recording right away. Sometimes they will withhold it because it is evidence in a criminal case.
Police also said there are some exemptions to releasing recordings, including videos that show private matters inside the home, a hospital or other medical facility.