JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With investigations continuing into seven people shot by police in Jacksonville this year, plus more from last year, many in the community believe that equipping officers with body cameras would help in accountability.
Sheriff Mike Williams agrees, but in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon said several things have to be in place before proceeding.
"I know that a large amount of citizen complaints and other allegations of wrongdoing can be effectively handled with this tool," Williams wrote. "We have been looking into body cameras. There have been statutory corrections made to the law recently, which will help."
Williams noted that body cameras would be one more piece of evidence in the investigations that would be used in both the State Attorney's Office and JSO Response to Resistance Board of all police-involved shootings.
Williams said body cameras are expensive to buy and the storage and public access to the video is a challenge.
"The challenge for large law enforcement agencies like JSO is the funding and the sustainability of camera programs. We have to ensure that every police officer is outfitted; this can't be random or partial," Williams said. "We have to ensure that the hardware and software are properly maintained with upgrades and required maintenance. And, the unknown costs of ever-increasing storage of the data must be considered, as our storage/infrastructure needs will grow exponentially as officers' video is downloaded, stored, reviewed, edited for legal exemptions, etc. Infrastructure requires that we have all the resources needed to fill records requests."
READ: Sheriff William's full statement on police-involved shootings, body cameras
In the wake of Sunday's fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a JSO officer that followed a high-speed chase, many in the community are demonstrating, asking for more accountability of officers.
Body cameras might have also played a factor in an officer's recent beating Mayra Martinez at the jail, or a man punched several times during a narcotics investigation at Northwest Jacksonville convenience store.
Large and small law enforcement agencies across the country already use the technology. And the federal government offers grants to many who apply.
"It is another tool," said Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith, who spend $60,000 deploying body cameras for his 25 deputies.
Smith does not make them mandatory to wear, but some do. He said they can help recreate what happened in an incident, but they're not a fix-all.
"I have people come in and look at things that you and I would look at and say, 'Yeah he did that,' and they go, 'Well, I didn't see that.' You back it up 10 times and they don't want to believe it," Smith said.
In a recent incident in West Palm Beach, a close-up view makes it appear that officers might have used excessive force, but a wider angle shows an unruly and potentially dangerous suspect.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said the good outweighs the bad when it comes to body cameras.
"They are a tremendous help," Smith said. "I think all police officers should have body cams."