Flagler County Sheriff’s Office gets upgraded body, patrol car cameras

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is upgrading its camera system for both deputies and patrol cars. 

Sheriff Rick Staly said about 100 of his deputies will now use the Axon Body 3 model, an updated version of the Axon2. 

He said new features include activation upon sensing gunshots, higher quality footage, and more secure attachments to keep them from falling off.

"In a number of instances deputies are fighting, trying to control suspects, and the body camera gets knocked off," he said.

He said they allow the sheriff’s office to tap into a deputy’s stream in real-time and watch it in the crime center. 

"That’s protection for the deputy, it’s protection for the community, it's transparency," he said.

The sheriff’s office will also be installing the same model into patrol cars. Sheriff Staly says they offer features like automatic activation.

"It’ll automatically activate upon high speed or it senses a crash like the airbags go off or the sensors go off on the car," he said. 

He said one key feature is license plate recognition, meaning the cameras can read license plates while deputies are on patrol.

"Looking for fugitives, stolen vehicles, sex offenders," he said.

In a recent test run, he said the results were impressive.

"Within one hour it read three thousand license plates," said Sheriff Staly.

The total cost for the upgrades was just under $470,000.

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