Volusia County corrections officers get body cameras to record use-of-force incidents

In 2022, then-county corrections director Mark Flowers alleged that there had been "malicious and abusive behavior" toward inmates at the Volusia County Branch Jail.

Flowers alleged that officers beat a jail inmate in 2022. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation and a state attorney's office review led to no charges being filed against the officers involved.

An internal affairs report about the incident said that surveillance video from stationary cameras inside the jail didn't show what happened inside the cell where the confrontation took place. Flowers was fired by the county and filed a whistleblower's lawsuit which is ongoing.

If corrections officers had been wearing body cameras, perhaps that whole controversy would have been averted. Starting in August, guards and other workers began wearing them.

Despite the timing, Volusia County Public Protection Director Mark Swanson said the decision to add the cameras had nothing to do with Flowers and was really about transparency.

"It protects the officers, and it protects the inmates," he said.

From the lowest to the highest

The county's corrections officers, from the lowest to highest ranking, started using body-worn cameras on Aug. 21, Corrections Director Joseph DeMore said.

The county's body-worn camera policy is directed at capturing incidents of use-of-force and other incidents such as restraining inmates with certain equipment, using a Taser and other tools to subdue inmates, moving inmates to secure holding areas, and other situations.

Volusia is one of the only county governments in the area to equip its jail facilities with body cameras. The county manages inmates in two facilities off International Speedway Boulevard, the Volusia County Correctional Facility at 1354 N. Indian Lake Road and the Volusia County Branch Jail at 1300 Red John Road.

DeMore, who also wears a body camera, said he thinks one measurement of success for the program will be tracking use-of-force incidents to see if there will be a decrease.

"But, again, the transparency piece is the big piece for us," he said.

Swanson said body camera videos will be released to the public, though some portions of videos might have to be cut because of security issues or other concerns.

Body camera policy

County government and corrections union officials signed off on the body camera policy for the jail in August.

The policy says that body cameras "will be utilized to capture interactions with non-compliant inmates and uses of force as they occur."

Officers are expected to turn on the cameras for a range of circumstances covered in the policy. Those include, among other things, responding to a code, moving inmates to a special holding area, being involved in an incident that could lead to the use of force on an inmate, conducting interviews about fights or inmate injuries, restraining an inmate with certain equipment or being part of an incident that involves securing an inmate and using a Taser or PepperBall projectile device.

If a spontaneous incident happens, officers should turn on the camera as soon as possible.

Officials will preserve recordings of any incident that leads to "any form of documentation," according to the policy.

The policy, which went into effect on Aug. 15, has a 60-day grace period where there won't be discipline for officers unless there is "egregious or intentional behavior."

County officials didn't immediately have details about the cost. This year the Volusia County Council approved spending about $747,122 total over five years to Axon Enterprises for the body camera system.

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Flagler County also implements body cameras

Almost all surrounding county jails ― those in Brevard, Lake, Marion, Orange, Putnam and Seminole counties ― don't have body cameras in their jail facilities, according to their media representatives.

But Flagler County's jail recently started using body cameras, Flagler County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ava Hanner said.

While body cameras are popular among patrol officers, they're still "quite new" in the corrections world, said Thomas Baker, an associate professor in the University of Central Florida's Department of Criminal Justice.

Baker's expertise includes corrections matters and justice policies. He said some agencies are rolling it out hoping to see reductions in use-of-force incidents and other benefits, but it hasn't been "well evaluated for its effectiveness" in jail settings.

"One of the hopes of using body-worn cameras in corrections is to reduce any officer-on-inmate incident that can occur, but if you can choose not to turn your camera on, then that evidence doesn't exist," he said.

He also said there can be privacy concerns with cameras in a jail setting.

Volusia County's policy says that if an officer fails to turn on a camera, intentionally blocks the camera, or prematurely ends the recording during a reportable incident, he or she will have to submit a report explaining why.

Bakers said overall he thinks the idea of having body-worn cameras in the corrections setting is promising.

"Any time you want to engage in something that could potentially reduce injuries and protect both your officers and people inside the facility, you know, I think it's good," Baker said. "But at the same time any of these programs that get rolled out, you know, I would hope that it's being evaluated to actually look at whether or not it's having the intended effect."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia, Flagler County jails add body cameras