JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said he won’t be going to any town hall meetings at which the public will voice concerns about the new body cam program.
There will be a total of six meetings.
“I think the more communication we can do prior to the crisis, or the more we can do to try and educate people, and listen to people too,” Williams said.
On Monday, he met with a class at Jacksonville University. The topic of discussion was body cams.
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“Right now, we’re having some community conversations about input on body cams in general,” Williams said.
Body cams have been a controversial topic for some time now, especially since the May 2016 officer-involved shooting of an unarmed man, Vernell Bing Jr.
The first town hall meeting on police body cameras was Tuesday at Edward Waters College, but Williams wasn't there. We asked him about his absence.
“I had another appointment. I have to look at my calendar to see where I was,” he said.
Our camera was there. At the last meeting, several people voiced their concerns about Williams' absence.
“It was never the intention for me to be at those meetings,” Williams said.
He said he’s getting public input on how he should shape the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office body cam policy.
“Keep in mind, I’m having meetings, every week, of different community members, and different organizations, and the body cam project,” Williams said.
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“Anytime you have a community meeting, people are going to take an opportunity to raise a variety of issues, and we let them do that. Ninety-three percent of people in this community across the board, want body cams for police officers and I would agree,” Williams said.
Williams said his team is behind the scenes, researching which body cams JSO should use and how they should manage them.
“This is a technical pilot. What features, what cameras do we like, download capabilities, download process -- those are things we all have to evaluate,” Williams said.
Williams said there will be a final presentation, on information from the previous meetings. He plans on being at that.
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