Crime and Courts Baldwin County
Baldwin County Commission Approves $662,567 for Sheriff’s Office Body Cameras
The Baldwin County Commission approved $662,567 for 129 sheriff's office body cameras as a dispute over public access to footage is before the Alabama Supreme Court.
BAY MINETTE, Ala. — The Baldwin County Commission has approved $662,567 for the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office to buy 129 body cameras and related technology.
Storage costs
Sheriff Hoss Mack told the commission Monday that cloud-based computing for keeping camera footage and other records is one of the sheriff’s office’s largest expenses. He said videos in criminal cases are often stored for several years.
Access to footage
The sheriff’s office has rarely released body camera footage to the public.
In July, attorneys for a local newspaper and the sheriff’s office argued before the Alabama Supreme Court over whether body camera footage of the 2017 shooting death of Jonathan Victor by a deputy is a public record.
In that case, deputies were called to a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 10 after being told Victor was acting combatively toward first responders. After Victor was ordered to drop an item he was holding and to comply, Sgt. Matt Hunady shot him with his service rifle, killing him. The item was later determined to be a fanny pack, and no weapon was found.
