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Last updated on Tuesday, September 16, 2014
(PRINCETON) - Deputies with a southwestern Indiana sheriff’s department will soon be equipped with body cameras designed to collect potentially crucial evidence during police interactions with suspects.
The Gibson County Council last week unanimously approved allocating $20,000 in riverboat revenue funds to pay for 20 cameras and computer accessories for the county's deputies.
Sheriff George Ballard told council members it was his job to bring the potential value of body cameras to the council's attention in the wake of a Ferguson, Missouri police officer's fatal shooting of a teenager that sparked days of rioting in that community.
The Princeton Daily Clarion reports Councilman George Ankenbrand says the $20,000 for the cameras is money well spent if it can prevent a big lawsuit. Ankenbrand is a former county prosecutor.
This decision isn't the first of its kind. Several Indiana agencies have begun pilot programs to test out the success of body cameras, such as Indianapolis metro police and Daleville, Ind., police.
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