Citrus County deputies to begin wearing body cameras, sheriff says

Deputies start using body cameras in summer

FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis reports on newly elected Citrus County Sheriff David Vincent, who announced that the county's deputies will begin wearing body cameras this summer after promising the change while campaigning for the position.

INVERNESS, Fla. - The Citrus County Sheriff's Office will adopt a body-worn camera program this summer.

What they're saying:

Newly elected Sheriff David Vincent said it was a promise during his campaign to bring the program to the agency.

"I said during my campaign that it's unbelievable that it's going to 2025, and we don't have a single video recording device for our interactions with the public," Vincent said.

Citrus County deputies will soon be wearing body cameras.

The agency does not use dash cameras either.

All 115 deputies in the patrol division will sport the technology come June 30 or sooner.

"As we expand the program in the future years, we'll look at whether our detectives need body cameras, whether our bailiffs, our school resource officers. But the priority was our patrol division since they're having the most interactions every day with our public," Vincent said.

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Sheriff Vincent said with the transition into his administration, it's a great time for the agency to adopt the program.

"We are reorganizing the agency anyway with it being a new administration, so it was actually great timing to create some positions with existing staff to help us with our public records requests and things like that, that we know we can expect with new body-worn cameras," he explained.

The sheriff's office will use Axon cameras, a brand other Bay Area law enforcement agencies already use.

Citrus County deputies will soon be wearing body cameras.

"One of the things in particular that I like about Axon now is that we're having a staffing issue. So how do you make your people more efficient if you can't hire more people?" Vincent said.

The cameras have a feature called 'Draft One' that uses AI technology to help deputies write up reports faster.

"A lot of our deputies' time is consumed by writing reports, so if we can make them more efficient in doing that, and this 'Draft One' will allow them to do that, it gives them more time on the road to do actual police work instead of sitting behind a computer writing reports," Vincent said.

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Sheriff Vincent said there are currently 12 to 13 deputy vacancies.

"The County Commission is just getting ready to give us 15 more positions," Vincent said. "I've said in the next couple of years, we need about 35 more positions than we are today."

He believes the technology will help attract candidates to Citrus County.

What's next:

Training begins next month. The sheriff's office aims to officially start the program on or before June 30.

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis.

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