Letter: It’s time the sheriff’s office gets body cams

Last month, a Portage County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a Windham women who had allegedly entered a neighbor’s garage with a gun.  A Garrettsville police officer responding to the incident captured a lot of what unfolded on the scene because he was equipped with a body camera.  Unfortunately, some details remain unnecessarily murky, because our Sheriff’s office has not yet acquired body camera equipment.  

Why is that still the case?  Last year, Governor Mike DeWine announced a $10 million grant program to help law enforcement agencies offset the cost of providing body camera equipment to officers — equipment that the Sheriff’s office said they wanted, according to a Record-Courier article at the time.  Portage County commissioners urged the Sheriff’s office to apply for the funding.