OCONTO COUNTY (NBC 26) — This month, the Oconto County Board approved a $1.12 million purchase to get body camera and squad car video systems for the sheriff's office.
- The $1.12 million will be paid back over five years and will not increase taxes, according to the county administrator.
- The purchase includes body cameras for both jail and patrol deputies, new radios and squad car video systems.
- Sheriff Todd Skarban says the cameras will increase transparency, accountability and safety.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details for web)
This month, the County Board approved the $1.12 million dollar purchase.
“I think it’s a good way to protect both sides, both the deputies and the sheriff’s office staff, as well as the public," County Administrator Richard Heath said.
Heath says the initial purchase will come out of the County's general fund. Then the money will be paid back over five years using money made from the County sales tax. He adds the purchase will not raise taxes for residents.
“The technology overall is really exploding in costs," he said. "So that is one investment that we can’t really fall behind on, and this is an investment in public safety.”
The purchase includes body cameras, new radios, upgrades to the record keeping system, wifi routers and squad car video systems.
Sheriff Todd Skarban says they researched which cameras to get for two years, then they tested out the final product in a 60-day pilot program.
“We took a little bit of a slower approach to it, a very thoughtful approach, knowing that when you’re going to introduce change into your organization, it’s got to be an accepted change," he said.
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The purchase also includes body cameras for the jail staff, which are currently being tested in a separate pilot program.
“There's cameras everywhere, but the audio end of it is important," Skarban said. "It’s my responsibility to care for and maintain our county jail, care for our inmate population.”
Skarban says the cameras will increase accountability and transparency. He says the cameras will make investigations easier, as the district attorney will be able to see and hear everything that happened.
“That’s accountability for our team and our staff, but it’s also accountability for the people that we’re having contact with, so they’re going to understand that they’re on camera, and what they say and what they do is going to be on camera," he said.
Skarban also says they’ll review the video to train officers.
“We’re able to coach you up, and we’re able to say, we’ve seen you do it this way, how about we see you do it this way," he said. “It’s going to make us better at our job, it’s going to make us safer in the community.”
The majority of sheriff offices and police departments in Wisconsin have already implemented this technology, including the Cities of Oconto and Oconto Falls.
“Body camera technology has been around for years," Skarban said. “This is in alignment with a lot of the other agencies in Wisconsin.”
Skarban says they'll spend the next year training staff before fully launching the cameras.
He says there wasn't a specific event that sparked the change, but that the agency has been wanting body cameras for several years.
“This is just going to be a path forward to embrace innovation and embrace technology to a certain point," he said. "I knew at some point I wanted to get here, and now, finally, the timing was right.”
