"The answer is, 'daily'," Bishop said. "Every time we go to court I wish we had them."
The sheriff's office has been considering it for years but at present has neither type of camera for patrol deputies.
An informal survey of Magic Valley law enforcement agencies reveals the office appears to be among the only ones that don't have either.
Cameras would be useful, Bishop said, and not just for serious offenses. Something as simple as a citation written for a motorist running a red light will likely have more probability of success in court if it was caught on video.
As recent as Friday during a preliminary hearing, a public defender asked a Twin Falls County officer whether an incident in which drugs were reportedly found in a vehicle was captured on video or audio. The response was a "no."
In a more serious incident, Twin Falls County Sheriff's deputies didn't have cameras that might have provided evidence during an officer-involved shooting on Aug. 26 that started off as a high-speed pursuit after a 24-year-old passenger threatened a motorist with a gun.
The passenger, Caleb Tussey, was later shot during a confrontation with the deputies near Buhl.
Deputies involved in the incident were cleared after a months-long investigation by the Magic Valley Critical Incident Task Force that was reviewed by a prosecuting attorney.
Another fatal officer-involved shooting happened in mid-May as Twin Falls County deputies and officers from the Twin Falls Police Department attempted to serve a civil protection order on a 45-year-old man in Kimberly.
Twin Falls Police Department officers got body cameras in 2017. The Times-News wasn't able to determine whether video or audio evidence was collected after the shooting, which is being investigated by the Idaho State Police as part of the critical incident task force.
Jerome County deputies were also involved in a Sept. 20 officer-involved shooting that led to the death of 34-year-old Amos Campbell.
The investigation report of the Campbell incident referenced multiple times when video from the cameras provided evidence into officer's actions, and microphones recorded the sound of gunfire.
Body camera footage from a Kimberly Police Department officer was also examined by investigators. No charges were filed against law enforcement officers in the incident.
A costly priority
Bishop says equipping deputies with cameras is high on his priority list. Making that happen, however, will depend on finding enough money. He's hoping to squeeze something from the sheriff's office's $5.5 million budget and perhaps get additional funds from grant money.
Having such a dash-camera system to equip the 50 patrol deputies would cost $500,000 for a 5-year contract, he said. The sum is not just for the cost of the cameras, but for maintenance including data storage.
The cameras are relatively cheap, with the best ones costing almost $2,000. But the cost for storage adds up. There are requirements to have redundancy and in addition, rules require some of the data to be stored for 100 years.
Capt. Dennis Clark of the Jerome Police Department, however, says body-worn cameras provide an invaluable service to law enforcement officers.
"They have worked out absolutely wonderfully," Clark said of the cameras that were issued in 2016.
Officers wouldn't want to go back to the time they didn't have them, he said.
"They tell an accurate picture of what happened," he said. And officers can review footage from their cameras, helping with reports or when testifying in court.
"In today's political climate, the body cameras are definitely something you would want on your side," he said.
Bishop said he leans toward installing dash cameras, which would pick up a wide-angle view and be accompanied with an antenna that would pick up audio around the car.
But he's faced with tough budget decisions; retaining enough deputies to respond to calls is a bit higher on his priority list.
Hoping for a grant
Grant money, or leftover COVID funds, might be available to at least partially cover that cost, he said.
There's a July 1 deadline to apply for a Byrne grant, which helps fund police efforts nationwide.
Just across town, the Twin Falls Police Department has body cameras issued to patrol vehicles.
There are five reasons for the body cameras, says the city's website: professionalism, transparency, accountability, training and evidence.
In October 2015, the Twin Falls Police Department was awarded matching funds in a Department of Justice grant for body-worn cameras (BWC). After a bidding process in 2016, Axon was awarded the bid and officers were wearing the cameras in spring of 2017.
Receiving a grant might be vital for Twin Falls Sheriff's Office, Bishop said, as it is not a small department, having about 50 deputies.
"We didn't hesitate," said Gooding County Shaun Gough when he talked about how his agency secured both body cameras and dash cameras about 10 years ago. He said the footage obtained from the cameras can help deputies when they fill out police reports.
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They have worked out well for the office, and he said he hasn't had a problem with the expense.
The dash cameras are activated when the overhead lights are turned on, and rewind back 30 seconds. The body cameras have been of assistance, too. Although, like any technology, they aren't foolproof.
An officer-involved shooting occurred Feb. 23 in a physical altercation between a deputy and Roland Silas Brand II. In the struggle, the body camera fell off, but investigators were able to retrieve audio, Gough said. In addition, a bystander took video of the incident. No one was injured.
Gough added that body parts and other objects, such as weapons, can obscure a body camera's lens, or at times a law enforcement officer is turned away from the action.
But for the most part, body cameras do a good job at picking up important video, Clark said.
Even if five officers are serving a search warrant, Gough says each one needs to have a body camera.
"We don't want to miss anything," Gough said.
Complaints against officers
Law enforcement agencies say another benefit to the cameras is that it helps resolve issues when officers are accused of improper conduct.
When someone has a complaint, camera footage is reviewed, but said almost all the time it shows that officers acted properly, Gough said.
Just mentioning video is sometimes enough to dispel complaints, he added.
Lincoln County Sheriff Rene King said 42 minutes of bodycam footage recently quelled a complaint about a deputy. The video showed the deputy acted appropriately in the incident, King said.
King said that, before he was sheriff, he was cleared with the aid of a body camera. Someone accused him of using another deputy's name, but a review of the video showed he didn't.
That doesn't mean that officer's actions sometimes can't be improved upon, Clark said.
Clips from body cameras are randomly reviewed, he said, to ensure that officers are abiding by the "professionalism that we expect."
© 2023 The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
