Richland County Sheriff's Office to get new body cameras

Al Lawrence
·4 min read

The Richland County Sheriff’s Office is going to have new body cameras for all its deputies. The county commissioners Thursday approved a five-year, $361,080 contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona, that will provide 50 body cameras for law enforcement personnel and eight cameras for deputies who do prisoner transport as well as unlimited digital evidence storage.

“This a complete turnkey package to the point where we also have a refresh as part of this so halfway through the contract they will replace our equipment and we get the newest version of whatever that is,” said Operations Capt. Jim Sweat. “It covers all data storage — unlimited.”

Richland County Sheriff's Office Capt. Jim Sweat says a state grant will pay for nearly half of the cost of a new contract that will provide 50 body cameras for law enforcement personnel, eight cameras for deputies who do prisoner transport, and unlimited digital evidence storage.
Richland County Sheriff's Office Capt. Jim Sweat says a state grant will pay for nearly half of the cost of a new contract that will provide 50 body cameras for law enforcement personnel, eight cameras for deputies who do prisoner transport, and unlimited digital evidence storage.

Sweat told commissioners that the Sheriff’s Office has received a $152,885 state grant that will pay for a little just under half of the total cost. He noted that the board appropriated a total of $66,000 in this year’s budget to pay for the local share as part of a five-year planned expenditure.

“With that $66,000, we have money in our revolving fund and our crime lab fund that we can pay the remainder of the upfront (cost) without having to ask the commissioners for any additional money and once the reimbursement comes back from the state we would reimburse those funds,” Sweat explained.

He did not say how long it would take for the body cameras to come in and have the digital evidence system operating.

New contract for Dayspring workers

Commissioners also voted Thursday to approve a new three-year contract with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Ohio Council 8 Local 3014, which represents about 25 employees at Dayspring, Richland County’s assisted living facility. Membership includes licensed practical nurses, cooks, resident care attendants, drivers, custodians and activities personnel.

County Human Resources Director Kelley Christiansen said the pay raises vary with a 75-cent-per-hour increase in starting pay and a 6% increase the first year for all other employees except LPNs, who will get a 9% raise the first year.

“These increases bring them in line with comparables in these areas of work,” Christiansen said, adding that increases in the second and third year of the contract will be 3.5%.

The Dayspring contract runs from June 10, 2024, through June 9, 2027.

Natural gas aggregation contract extended

Commissioners also agreed to amend the length of the contract with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio to handle natural gas aggregation services from the current five years to 10 years. The county made a similar change last year to the electric aggregation contract with the CCAO.

Under the agreement, the CCAO provides services to collectively negotiate rates for natural gas used at county-owned facilities for a fixed period.

Amy Hoffman, a representative of Palmer Energy Company of Toledo, which is the energy consultant for the CCAO, said the change will allow the company to seek supplier contract that are longer than five years.

“Right now we only do supplier agreement for a few years, but that’s not to say that’s always going to be the case.  It’s going to be whatever the market dictates and I don’t see that changing,” she said.

Hoffman cautioned that while natural gas prices are at an all-time low right now, that probably is not how they are going to stay because of supply and demand.

“Weather is a large part of it. We had a mild winter. We’ll see where the summer goes because gas is being used more and more for the production of electricity,” she said. “They had a lot of drilling going on and, because of the weather, we have more in storage underground than we’ve had in a very long time.”

Hoffman told the board that producers are continuing to export gas and that it is anticipated that prices will go up as that continues.

Palmer is the energy consultant for the CCAO and currently negotiates electric aggregation and building usage rates and natural gas facilities rates for Richland County. Franklin, Sandusky and Mifflin Townships are the only subdivisions participating in the electric aggregation program, although Hoffman said she is reaching out to subdivisions that previously had been with the CCAO program to remind them about what the program is doing.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Commissioners OK new contract for body cameras for sheriff's deputies