Wisconsin Sheriff's Office Gets $40K Grant for Body Cams

(TNS) — When body cameras were first introduced to local police nearly two decades ago, La Crosse County Sheriff Jeff Wolf said officers were initially wary.

He said attitudes have changed.

"Over time, they found the cameras assisted them in showing the public that they do good work," Wolf said.

Wolf said cameras in the field soon will become clearer and more reliable thanks to a $40,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance.

He said the new equipment will work in concert with the existing mobile camera system and capture more activity that doesn't occur directly in front of a squad car.

"With the rapid improvements in today's technology, the body-worn cameras have become a necessity for law enforcement and correctional work," Wolf said. "While they do not replace the good work that our staff does, they will certainly supplement their efforts."

He said the new technology will make video retention and open records requests easier and faster and will aid his officers in training and debriefing of incidents.

He doesn't anticipate storage issues. He said the sheriff's office can store 11 terabytes of video.

Wolf said officers still will be required to manually activate the cameras and that no system is "100% foolproof." However, he said the upgraded equipment "will allow us to be more transparent in our day-to-day activities."

"While I have complete trust in the integrity of the men and women that serve in the sheriff's office, this grant will allow us to implement another layer of transparency for the public that we serve."

(c)2020 the La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, Wis.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.