Body cameras for guards in Erie County's Correctional Facility are closer to reality, with negotiations underway with an employee union.
Sergeants are already using the cameras to see how they work inside. Speaking to the County Corrections Specialist Advisory Board Tuesday, Sheriff John Garcia said he wants the cameras in service, and that deputies will be required to use them and to use them properly.
"Let's say you're in a certain part of the unit and there's an incident that's occurring somewhere else," said Jail Management Divisions Superintendent Michael Phillips. "You're to activate the camera immediately. So, as you're heading there, you are already recording and the incident records throughout the entire time until a supervisor, at that point, tells you you can stop recording."
After Phillips explained how deputies will be required to turn the devices on, there was pushback from Advisory Board Member Baba Eng.
"When required to do so, when a circumstance arises," Phillips said.
"So my concern is that circumstances are and a deputy is involved in it, he just doesn't turn the camera on," Eng said.
"They're required to," Phillips said. "And there's actions that management will take if they're not in compliance."
Every police agency does it a little differently, within the specifications of the cameras, with many coming from the same manufacturer.
Phillips said he has a template from another, unidentified New York county.
"I've received a copy of a successfully negotiated contract from a larger county jail in the state that has been using body cameras for a couple years," he said. "I figured rather than re-create the wheel in my negotiations with the union, there was a very comprehensive agreement that covered a lot of the issues that the union was bringing up."
Phillips said he's expecting the cameras very soon, since some other parts of the camera system have already arrived. Training and such depends on the outcome of union bargaining.
The board asked Phillips to come back for the March 22 meeting to explain the ground rules for operating the devices, particularly if the labor talks have concluded.
