The Footage is Property of the ‘Public Who Requested It”

After the shooting death of Vernell Bing, along with several police involved shootings during the Spring of 2016, the Sheriff asked the public during a series of Town Hall meetings how his department could improve ‘trustworthiness’ with the public?

This week, a collaboration of Grassroots Advocates, Organizations and concerned residents collectively requested a Body Cam System – to witness encounters; and a Citizen Review Board – to manage the intersections when there are questions about citizen engagement with the sheriff’s department.

Their collective vision represents the “public who requested it”.

Sheriff Mike Williams agreed to pursue the request and returned with a proposal to City Council to provide additional funding to the department’s budget to implement a Body Cam Initiative.

City Council agreed to purchase the necessary equipment and storage. City Council voted unanimously to represent the interest of the ‘public who requested it’.  Therefore, the ‘public who requested it’ controls the footage, and the rights to grant permission to those who wish to view.

Unfortunately, Director Davis, assigned to the task of implementing the Body Cam System has different expectations for the initiative.

At the first of six promised Town Hall Meetings hosted by The Northside Coalition at Edward Waters College, Director Davis’s presentation was met with reservations; in part, because, it is does not resolve the original issue – trustworthiness, and the current policy does not include the opinions of the “public who requested it”.

As written, in accordance with HB937, the Body Cam policy will allow the Sheriff’s Department and staff to control the footage. Because the Sheriff’s Department controls the footage, it will become a public record; however, the ‘public who requested it” will never be allowed to see an un-redacted copy of the video footage.  Clearly, this policy disqualifies the Body Cam as a Witness of Officer Conduct for the ‘public who requested it”.

In my opinion, next steps action for Sheriff Mike Williams is to invite the ‘public who requested it’ to write the policy to govern the Body Cam “public witness” system to establish trustworthiness of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department.

The policies JSO are promoting to the community are exclusionary – which is untrustworthy and defeats the point. This is not the intent of the grassroots advocates, organizations and concerned residents of Jacksonville, Florida.