Portage sheriff's body cameras are up and running at last
The long-awaited body cameras are finally in use at the Portage County Sheriff's Office.
As Portage County Commissioners recently accepted a $141,356 grant from the State of Ohio to offset the cost of the cameras, Commissioner Mike Tinlin reported that the cameras previously purchased for the sheriff's department are up and running.
Sheriff's Chief Deputy Ralph Spidalieri estimated Friday that the cameras had been operational in the field for about a week.
More:'We've got cameras sitting in a box': NAACP asks why Portage deputies not using body cameras
"We're still doing a little bit of training, trying to work through the bugs," he said. "You know, a system as big as this, with all these cameras, not an easy undertaking. Technology here in the station as far as the Wi-Fi and just all that stuff, it takes all hands on deck to get it to where it needs to be. But it's going good. It's going good."
Spidalieri said the sheriff's office has approximately 100 cameras. Each of the 67 full-time and 11 part-time deputies have their own camera. Corrections officers in the jail also use body cameras now, but they rotate them with other corrections officers among the three shifts.
Video can be downloaded to a server via Wi-Fi by pressing a button for storage in the cloud, said Spidalieri. Video from more serious incidents would be kept indefinitely, but due to storage costs, more routine incidents will eventually be deleted.
"It would be an absolute disaster moneywise to try to store just typical routine traffic stops month after month," Spidalieri said.
Commissioners agreed to move forward with the purchase of the body cameras last June, estimating the cost of outfitting each deputy with a camera between $400,000 and $500,000. In December, the NAACP met with the Sheriff's department and asked why those cameras were not in place. Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski reportedly said the cameras were "sitting in boxes." Commissioners said at the time that IT needed to work on the infrastructure required to make the cameras operational.
That job is now complete, Tinlin recently told commissioners.
"Every deputy in Portage County has one," Tinlin said. The only part of the program not in place is the "Verizon hookup," which Tinlin called an "advanced operation."
The enhancement would allow dispatchers to find out what is going on in the field, even if a deputy is unable to be reached by radio. For example, he said, if a deputy is in a tussle and a dispatcher is unable to reach the deputy, dispatch can see what's happening with a push of a button. Dispatchers are also able to see what's happening in the cruiser using the feature.
Also, Tinlin said, if a deputy is chasing a suspect through the woods, and the suspect drops something during the chase, the deputy can later use the footage to follow the original path to recover the item. And if a deputy is hurt in the field, a GPS signal can lead help to the injured officer.
Tinlin said he is working with a national Verizon representative and a retailer in Kent, and has negotiated the price of the program from $5,000 monthly to $2,500 a month.
"I think we're going to get a good deal," Tinlin said. "I truly think we can't go without it."
Long wait for cameras
The camera purchase was approved after months of public discussion about the importance of the technology. Shortly after taking office, Zuchowski made the case for $2.9 million in additional funding for facility and equipment upgrades. At the time, the sheriff said body cameras were needed to protect officers from false accusations and lawsuits.
But a year and a half later, the cameras still hadn't been ordered, despite three shootings involving Portage County deputies since 2021 — two of them fatal. Deputies have been cleared of wrongdoing in all three incidents, including the most recent, when Windham resident Cora Baughman was shot and killed by a deputy after a dispute between Baughman and her neighbor in May.
More:Interviews detail longstanding neighbor feud before Portage deputy fatally shot woman
Commissioners and the NAACP have pushed for the sheriff's office to obtain the cameras. Although the county first looked into grant sources to offset the cost, commissioners agreed to pay the $400,000 to $500,000 cost of obtaining the cameras themselves.
"We need to move forward with this," Commissioner Sabrina Christian-Bennett said at the time. "$400,000 to $500,000 seems like a lot, but not if we get sued."
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com. Record-Courier Reporter Jeff Saunders also contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage sheriff's body cameras are up and running
