Now, think about who wouldn’t want video evidence. If you were an officer who was forced to shoot and kill someone, wouldn’t you want the video that shows precisely the danger you were facing when you decided to pull the trigger? Osceola sheriff, deputies facing lawsuit over deadly Target shooting The department says the officers were under threat that the suspect was in a car that was trying to ram the officers’ vehicle. That was a choice made by Gibson until he left office in 2020 and by Lopez in the years since.Īnd it’s one investigators and maybe even jurors will now have to wrestle with as they consider a lawsuit from the family of 20-year-old Jayden Baez.įamily members say deputies used “excessive, unreasonable and unnecessary force” in response to a shoplifting call. In fact, by 2018, Osceola was one of the few major offices in Central Florida that didn’t have cameras as standard-issue equipment.Ĭommentary: Body cameras for police are now the norm … except for a few Central Florida holdouts Other chiefs said that simply letting suspects know they were on camera sometimes quieted them down.īasically, cameras make many people behave better. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said his best cops usually liked having recordings of their interactions with the public - that it was “the bums” who got nervous some ultimately deciding to leave the job. They vindicate cops who are subjected to bogus complaints and give members of the public fuller stories if they suspect a cop left crucial details out of his or her official report. But I’ve been talking with police chiefs and sheriffs about this for a decade, and most agree the benefits are extensive.Ĭameras help prosecutors secure convictions and keep the bad guys behind bars. And they can be turned off at inopportune times. But he and his predecessor made the choices that left us without cameras in this deadly shoplifting case last year - and in most Osceola County schools to this very day.Ĭameras aren’t perfect. It’s good that the office says Lopez now believes they’re needed force-wide. Osceola sheriff backtracks on support for equipping school deputies with body cameras (See this story from 2021: “Osceola sheriff backtracks on support for equipping school deputies with body cameras” where Lopez said: “I don’t think they’re needed.”) That’s on the heels of Lopez offering conflicting stances about whether he wanted his officers wearing them. As of this week, the Osceola sheriff’s office says it has issued only 285 cameras to its 478 sworn officers.Įven more stark: Of the 50 school resource officers on the job, the office says only 17 working in high schools are wearing body cameras. And if another deadly incident transpires tomorrow involving Osceola deputies, there’s a solid chance there won’t be any video evidence once again.
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