Lakeland weighs options for police cameras

Equipment comes with hefty price tag

LAKELAND — It would cost Lakeland approximately $9 million to equip 200 of the city’s police officers with body cameras and in-vehicle cameras for the next 10 years, according to police department.

Lakeland Police Chief Ruben Garcia presented three options for equipping the city’s officers with video, either body cameras or on vehicle dashboards, to city commissioners on Monday morning. It’s the city’s first discussion on possibly implementing body cameras since the topic came up in public forums amid last year’s national protests after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota.

“There’s a perception that body-worn cameras is a useful tool and there are some arenas within this profession they could be useful,” Garcia said. “Recent research ... says your biggest value is deploying these in a troubled agency.”

Lakeland Police Department answered more than 102,000 calls and conducted more than 6,000 traffic stops last year, according to Garcia.

It received 55 citizen complaints, 15 of which launched internal investigations. There were no substantiated complaints of excessive use of force or racially bias policing, according to the chief.

Despite these stats, Mayor Bill Mutz acknowledged that body cameras were a “universal desire” arising from Lakeland’s racial forums last year.

“We have these statistics that show we don’t have those challenges, so why is the push so evident here in our community,” Commissioner Phillip Walker said.

Garcia said he won’t dispute people’s individual perceptions but thinks a lot of the demand for body cameras is driven by larger national events. There have been increased calls for the use of body cameras following the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man being arrested by Minneapolis police officers in May.

“There is still a link of accountability to the community and certainly there is a hope (that) presence of the camera would increase not just officers’ professionalism but the actions of the pubic that knows they are being recorded,” Garcia said.

The quickest and most costly option would be for Lakeland to replace all its existing vehicle dashboard cameras and purchase body cameras for approximately 200 officers, Garcia said. The chief said a full replacement would allow the two video systems to collaboratively work together. This would take only a year to fully implement, according to Garcia, and cost the city approximately $5 million over the next five years.

The second option would be to add body cameras to the police department’s existing vehicular dashboard system, Garcia said. The estimated cost would be $3 million over five years, but the chief said it would take longer — about three to five years to roll out.

Any body camera system would would require the components to be upgraded approximately every five years, Assistant Police Chief Hans Lehman said. Each body camera costs about $6,735 versus $13,345 per in-car video.

“There is a significant increase in reoccurring costs in fielding body cameras,” Garcia said. “It’s the recurring costs, not just the initial ones, we have to be concerned with.”

The Lakeland Police Department would need to switch to an unlimited cloud data storage plan costing more than a half million dollars a year to be able to keep all video footage recorded by officers as required by state law, Garcia said.

Other costs in the estimated $721,000 annual price tag would include purchasing a back-up office server, a dedicated internet service and hiring two additional staff members — one in public records and one IT specialist — to help manage the systems.

In the alternative, Garcia said the police department could keep using its current in-car vehicle system. It is in the process of updating its fleet at a cost $1.5 million, which it hopes to finish in the next two to four years.

Interim Commissioner Don Selvage asked for the city to seek another point of view on body cameras, either from a company or police department that currently uses them. His request was backed by Commissioner Stephanie Madden.

“Is body cameras going to be one of those things, a tool in tool chest of cities that are proactive and innovative, not just those responding to public outcry due to a bad apple scenario?” she said. “I want to think of it as a smart city approach and a best practice that we invest in.”

Yet Madden also expressed concern about having the funds to address issues with the police department’s union, which is currently in contract negotiations with the city seeking higher pay and better benefits.

It does not appear that any federal funds would be available to Lakeland for body camera system, Garcia said.

The police chief said he wouldn’t be in favor of a body camera pilot program in Lakeland, like the City of Lake Wales approved in February. Garcia said that because he cannot predict where and when an incident may occur, he’d rather go all in than partially.

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I’m ticked off at the local news station that has all the local deals and steals spending more time on infomercials than the news. If I want to shop on my TV, I’ll watch QVC.

The people who throw phone books and grocery ads in everyone’s driveways should be required by law to return within 48 hours and pick up those that remain.

When I listen to Orlando Magic games on radio, the too-loud background noise causes the announcers not to be heard. The noise is also fake!

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I’m annoyed and ticked because my coworker is always talking behind my back. You are nothing but a backstabber and love to spread gossip — about everyone! You obviously don’t have enough work to do. We are all going to fix that in this office very soon. Watch for it! You are so quick to criticize others — take a look into your own actions. Morale is at it’s lowest point around here because of you.

The flip side

This is a very belated thank you. But thanks to all the Lake County EMS personnel who helped my late husband every time he needed assistance getting up or being transported to the hospital. Everyone was very nice in a situation that was very unnerving.

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