Panel won’t weigh in on body cameras

After months of study, a panel set up to help decide whether the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office should buy body cameras has decided not to answer that question.

Too much is unknown on the effectiveness of body cameras in reducing the use of force, and studies show mixed results, said Kristina Henson, director of the Criminal Justice Commission.

“Right now, we need to learn,” Henson said. “We need to understand what is going on with body cameras.”

Police chiefs should consider the pros and cons of body cameras and decide based on their department’s unique circumstances, she said.

About a dozen of the Palm Beach County’s 25 police agencies have body cameras, including the West Palm Beach Police Department and the Delray Beach Police Department.

The county’s largest policing agency — the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office — does not use body cameras and is evaluating whether it should purchase them.

It likely won’t be until next year at the earliest that money would be allocated for deputies to start using body cameras. The Sheriff’s Office budget request for the 2017-18 budget year does not request money to purchase the devices.

The Criminal Justice Commission is a 32-member board of public and private-sector officials that studies law enforcement issues. A panel created by the commission started meeting in January to research body cameras and provide guidance to law enforcement agencies.

The committee’s findings have been far from conclusive, Henson said. Some studies show body cameras have reduced officers’ use of force. Others, though, show use of force numbers aren’t lowered by body cameras.

Questions also remain on what is the best technology, policies and procedures for departments to use.

“The results are inconsistent,” said Lee Waring, chairman of the Criminal Justice Commission. “We thought it would be imprudent to be making recommendations.”

County commissioners have been pushing for body cameras. While the commission would provide money to buy the cameras, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw decides whether his deputies use the devices.

Commissioner Dave Kerner said the sheriff supports body cameras, but the details need to be ironed out in a way that it will garner the support of him and his deputies.

“We can fund it all day long and those cameras could sit in a back room if the sheriff is not comfortable in installing them,” said Kerner, a member of the body camera committee.

The Sheriff ’s Office estimates it would cost $19 million to equip deputies with body cameras.

The public widely supports body cameras, according to a survey released in November by Florida Atlantic University and the University of West Florida. About 88 percent of Palm Beach County residents surveyed in 2015 and 2016 said they thought body cameras would improve officer behavior.

But studies reviewed by the Criminal Justice Commission deliver mixed results on whether cameras are actually effective in preventing unnecessary police shootings.

A study by the University of South Florida found use of force fell by 8.4 percent for Tampa officers a year after body cameras were introduced, while those who did not wear body cameras saw use-offorce incidents rise by 3.4 percent. But studies of cameras in Milwaukee and Spokane, Wash., didn’t show a reduction in use of force.

Other South Florida agencies outside Palm Beach County are embracing body cameras.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office plans to eventually expand its body camera program to 1,500 of its roughly 2,500 sworn personnel. Based on figures provided by the Sheriff’s Office, it will cost $750,000 in one-time costs to equip 1,500 deputies with body cameras and about $1 million in annual operating costs.

sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher