The Wood County Sheriff’s Office will soon have a full slate of body cameras to be used as soon as policy
issues can be resolved.
Commissioners on Tuesday approved adding 17 cameras for $6,800, bringing the total after a purchase
earlier this month to 27, enough for each road deputy to have one, said Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn.
The $400 device, intended to record select interactions between law enforcement and members of the
public, won’t arrive until March or April. They are not capable of recording an entire shift and will
likely be activated at a deputy’s discretion.
Policies on their use must first be resolved with situational privacy concerns, so the sheriff is working
with the prosecutor’s office to do so now. Wasylyshyn has said the cameras are a good tool to monitor
potential misconduct by both citizens and deputies.
The goal all along was to acquire 27 cameras, but Wasylyshyn said he was waiting after the initial
purchase to see if his office would have enough money at the end of the year to complete the set.
"We were cautiously optimistic it would happen, and it did happen," he said.
Many other agencies around Wood County are waiting until the devices stand on firm legal footing, after
courts or common practices determine whether officers can deactivate them in certain situations without
suspicion, for instance.
Wasylyshyn said previously that he’s uncertain what parts of the footage would be considered public
information. While noting that he would likely treat it as such until the law says otherwise, he
expressed concerns that video could help potential burglars see the inside of private homes by
requesting police records.