EP County Sheriff’s Office deputies getting body cams and new tasers

El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputies and constables will now be equipped with body cameras in an effort to hold Holding law enforcement officers and the public accountable for their actions.

The contract unanimously approved by county commissioners Monday comes as the entire country focuses on improving the relationship between officers and those they’re sworn to protect.

The package deal with Taser International will result in 250 body cameras, 390 Tasers, and a 5-year unlimited data storage plan for $1.7 million.

Monday’s commissioners court vote paves the way to actually get the cameras and Tasers, a deal in the works for some months now, delayed a bit over budget concerns that have since been resolved.

“Since we’re not having to worry about paying any of the storage for the next five years since (Sheriff Richard Wiles) found the money in his budget going forward, it really made it a very easy decision,” said El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar.

This whole process started with a need to replace Tasers the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office was using that were out of date and didn’t even have parts being manufactured anymore. Taser International was offering a deal for free Tasers with the purchase of body cameras and a commitment to the back-end video and data storage system to manage all the video and more.

“(Deputies) can store everything under their ID, and it’s secure and safe and the district attorney would have access, and defense attorneys have access when they are reviewing cases,” Wiles said.

It’s expected to take some weeks to get the cameras in hand, and then a while longer to refine the policies on how they will be used. Wiles said they will be weighing the privacy of deputies and transparency on their actions.

“There’s a lot of questions about that,” Wiles said. “You can imagine that a lot of times officers are sitting in cars, talking to another officer or talking on the phone, and I don’t want to invade their privacy either, when they’re talking to their girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever, you know what I mean? So it may be something where whenever they get out of the car, they have to turn it on. We’ll have to decide, look at the model policies and come up with what works best for us.”

The extra funding Wiles found involves some positions changed from deputies to civilians at the county jail. There currently is a dispute over staffing levels there between the sheriff and the deputy’s association. The association voted earlier this year to support an opponent to Wiles in the upcoming election, Tom Buchino.