WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw called the rollout of new body cameras with streaming video "a learning process."
The sheriff's office was one of the last, large police agencies that didn't use body cameras. It will spend $70 million over the next decade to have the latest technology that will allow supervisors to watch law enforcement activity in real time.
The sheriff said only a small group of supervisors will be able to watch the video livestream and will be in position to help with the policing in real-time.
"This isn't one of those deals where we're spying on you or spying on the community," Bradshaw said. "It's there to document what we're doing."
How and what these cameras document can be the difference between responsible policing and roaming government surveillance, according to privacy experts.
"The right to privacy is an essential right that we have as citizens here in this country," West Palm Beach attorney Richard Schuler, who employed police body camera video in civil cases, said.
Schuler expects the sheriff's office will train its deputies and supervisors on when and when not to stream live video back to a sheriff's office substation.
"Having real-time streaming out to third parties, if you will, even though they are trained professionals, can cause a problem, if there's a violation," Schuler said.
Bradshaw said his staff will be instructed not to livestream video from body cameras in most cases when they make checks on people's homes.
"They have an expectation of privacy," Bradshaw. "Unless we think there's a crime being committed at that time in that residence, then we can have it on going in there."
Police departments at the University of Central Florida and in Daytona Beach are rolling out this technology.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office will be the largest agency in Florida with the ability for supervisors to see live body camera video.
