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Lakeland in early stages of exploring body cameras for police

Chief Ruben Garcia says he’s open to the idea based on public feedback but warns the program could be costly.

LAKELAND, Fla. — The city of Lakeland is in the very early stages of exploring the idea of police officer-worn body cameras.

The idea first came up following calls from the National NAACP, local Black Lives Matter groups, and the city’s Concerned Citizens Group.

“We’re not a police department, we’re their police department,” said Chief Garcia of the public’s calls in 2020 for more transparency and accountability of police officers across the country.

But Chief Garcia also points out that research shows police-worn body cameras are most beneficial in agencies with a history of problems and complaints, which he says is not the case in Lakeland.

In a workshop presentation to Lakeland City Commissioners, the chief said of the agency's 102,000-plus calls, 99.93 percent were made without any complaints from the public.

He says creating a body camera program would be expensive for the city and likely cost around $1.5 million in the first year and around $4.8 million dollars over five years, with the biggest part of the expense coming from data storage.

The chief says the city already has dash cameras installed in city police cruisers, which capture any interactions with the public during traffic stops.   He says that video is rarely requested by the public for review.

The City Commission has now requested a second workshop to further discuss the idea of body cameras with commissioners asking to hear from a Florida law enforcement agency of similar size.   

They would also like to hear about states like South Carolina, which rolled out a body camera program on more of a statewide basis to see how that worked as well.

If the city decided to move forward, the body camera program would likely be started after the completion of the city’s CAD system upgrade and would take more than a year to implement.

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