Dec 17, 2020
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Officials approved $2.5 million in funding Wednesday to allow the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to purchase body cameras less than two weeks after a deputy fatally shot a Black man, resulting in an outcry by the public on the lack of footage of the encounter.
“Body cameras help provide transparency to the public and can also help vindicate deputies when complaints are made against them,” Sheriff Dallas Baldwin said in a statement.
The Franklin County Commissioners began discussions on funding for body cameras for the Sheriff’s Office following a wave of protests in Columbus over the summer in response to the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Lousiville, Kentucky, at the hands of police.