SAWYER COUNTY -- The Sawyer County Sheriff's Office has announced that Patrol Deputies and Jail Staff will soon be equipped with body-worn cameras, according to a press release from the Sawyer County Sheriff's Office.
Press Release
Due to the overwhelming need for advanced tools for our Patrol and Jail staff to enhance officer safety, accountability, and transparency, the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office is undergoing an agency-wide implementation of body-worn cameras for our line staff.
Recent events nationwide have shown that these tools can be the product of raising community awareness of the increasingly difficult and oftentimes dangerous job that our law enforcement professionals undertake on a daily basis.
Over the course of the past year, we have formed an in-house group of staff who looked at implementing a body-worn camera program for the Sheriff’s Office. This group comprised staff from all divisions of the Agency, and members of the Sawyer County IT staff. Together they reached out to a number of vendors and tested several brands of equipment. Ultimately, they recommended a single system: The Axon Body 3 BWC. We feel that based on the company’s product, features, and plan assortment, Axon is our best choice in quality, features, and cost to our Agency and Sawyer County taxpayers.
With the selection of Axon, we can now enter the training and deployment phases. We will be conducting training on both the usage and maintaining of records for these increasingly important tools. Once these initial phases are completed, we will then issue these devices out to our staff. We will keep the public appraised of the final deployment date so that the citizens of Sawyer County and all that travel to and from here, will be aware of when to expect our officers to have them as part of their everyday equipment. We will also be placing a link on our website that shows just what our BWC policy is and what it encompasses.
These are exciting times in which technology can take an active role in not only keeping our officers safe but also providing the Courts with the evidence needed to get justice for victims. Do keep in mind, that with any technology or tool, there are no absolutes. Usage of anything is prone to the human element, and should not be seen as a definitive answer, but rather a method to support the facts gathered.
- Sheriff Douglas Mrotek
Last Update: Apr 22, 2022 12:16 pm CDT
