Officers in the Rock County Sheriff’s Department will get body cameras in 2021 as part of the budget approved Tuesday night by the county board.
The body camera proposal was included as part of a last minute amendment to the budget, allocating close to $400,000 for the equipment, digital storage and a video analyst position within the sheriff’s office to manage the program.
The funding to purchase the cameras will come from the county’s excess sales tax account, and the board voted to eliminate a proposed communications manager position to pay the salary of the video analyst.
Sheriff Troy Knudson said every patrol and correctional officer will be equipped with cameras, for a total of 106.
His grant application earlier in the year to pay for a smaller number of body cameras was denied, prompting the action by the county board.
Knudson said the camera technology includes a way for officers to go back and access footage from earlier in their shift if they forgot to manually turn on the recording before an incident.
