The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is getting $25.5 million to start rolling out a new body worn camera program, officials announced Tuesday.
County supervisors voted to transfer the funds after the Sheriff’s Department finalized an agreement with Axon Enterprise to get enough cameras for 5,200 deputies and security officers over the next two years, county officials said.
The deal came after weeks of unrest over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, with thousands taking to the streets of L.A. County to decry police brutality against people of color.
The first batch of cameras would equip deputies in five sheriff’s stations: West Hollywood, Lancaster, Lakewood, Industry and Century in October. Another ten stations will get the cameras beginning January next year.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva had previously announced 1,200 deputies in the five patrol stations will get the cameras.
The $25.5 million comes from a fund of $35 million that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors had set aside to buy body worn cameras.
“Body worn cameras are an important tool for transparency and will give us a clearer understanding of the interactions between our deputies and members of the public,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement. “However, we need to recognize that body-worn cameras do not prevent violence or, in themselves, guarantee accountability. This move needs to be accompanied by real accountability, real reform, and real reflection.”
The motion was authored by Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
“To build trust between our law enforcement officers and community members, transparency is key,” Barger said.
The body camera program had been held up for years amid concerns about costs and policies for releasing footage, the Los Angeles Times reported in June.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is the largest in the nation, but its deputies have had no body cameras — an issue that received more attention after a deputy shot and killed 18-year-old Andres Guardado near Gardena on June 18. He was shot five times in the back, an autopsy found.
The controversial shooting, which drew backlash and led to protests, wasn’t captured on camera.
That night, because the DVR connected to the security cameras at the location were seized during a previous shooting investigation, there is no video recording of the Guardado shooting, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Just a day before Guardado was killed, another man, 31-year-old Terron Jammal Boone, was killed during a gunfight with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies in Rosamond.
There’s been 274 incidents since 2010 in which L.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputies opened fire and shot residents — 15 of the shootings took place this year, according to data from the department.
