The MPs of Citrus County will start with body comrades this summer: sheriff

Citrus County, Fla. – This summer there is a change in the Citrus County Citrus office.

Sheriff David Vincent said on Monday that from June 30th all employees of the patrol department will wear body cameras at their daily interactions. The agency said that it signed a contract with Axon, a law enforcement company for the equipment.

“The implementation of such a program is not as easy as buying the cameras,” said Sheriff Vincent on Facebook. “There is a lot that responds to this – the orientation, guidelines, data management and of course financing. We knew that this was a big investment, but we also knew that it was right.”

The training begins in April, before going into the test phase in May.

“My commitment in this first year was to find a financing in the current budget that made challenges because I did not create it. My message to the employees on January 7th was that the priorities on January 6 were no longer the priorities of the Sheriff office of Citrus County with regard to funds/projects,” continued Vincent. “I asked the employees to find the financing through their individual departments that would not cause us to ask for further district assignments for this project in the first year. After weeks of proposals and reviews of current practices, I am glad to say that CCSO committed 385,000 US dollars this year to finance this initiative.

Other law enforcement agencies that are currently using body cameras are the Hillsborough County's Sheriff, the Sheriff's office of Pinellas County and the Sheriff office of the Pasco County.