He remembers when his cruiser was equipped with a video cassette recorder – or “VCR”.
It was a full-sized appliance, and the bulky unit was stuffed and installed under his seat. After each shift, he ejected the videotape and turned it in at the office, and then he was issued a new cassette for his next patrol duty.
It was awkward progress, Ohio County Sheriff Nelson Croft acknowledges now, but it was cutting-edge technology when introduced in the 1990s. Plus, at the time, Croft had no way of knowing he’d be wearing a camera on his chest before his law enforcement career was complete.
“When we first got the cruiser cameras, they were really rudimentary, but they worked for what they were intended for at that time. We had the technology that we had back then, and it’s certainly advanced since,” Croft said. “But back then, we had to have a full-sized VCR in the trunk or even under our seats, and we had to turn in the tapes and keep the tapes for long periods of time when something important was recorded.
“We still have our cruiser cameras and they work much better these days and the images are much clearer, too. It’s become all digital now,” he explained. “The body camera devices we’re using are for the best of everyone involved because our deputies and the citizens they interact with are recorded and the details are right there for everyone to see.”
Once receiving a federal grant, Croft introduced the use of body cameras for himself and every deputy of the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office late last summer, and since, he insisted, the benefits have outweighed any inconvenience.
“Because of the grant, acquiring them was a no-brainer,” Croft said. “We have a multi-year contract for them, and I do believe that in the years to come, body cams likely will be mandatory for everyone in uniform. The pros for us outweigh the cons by far.
“When a deputy interacts with the public, he’s expected to turn it on so everything can be recorded until he is finished with that interaction,” explained Croft, who expects he will run for re-election in 2028. “Each day, the deputy brings their body cam back to the office and plugs it in so the footage can upload to our cloud (storage). And yes, we have had several requests for the footage, mostly from the Prosecutor’s Office.”
Seeing Is Believing
The cruiser cameras were positioned in an automobile’s front window, so law enforcement officers were trained to conduct any interaction with an individual close to the vehicle’s front bumper.
Those occasions included field-based questioning and also field sobriety tests when a LEO suspected driving under the influence of alcohol. Now, though, the body cams are positioned center-chest and often provide perfect perspectives during those same interactions.
Once the technology was received last July, Croft confirmed, each of Ohio County’s deputies was thoroughly trained so they understood how best to utilize the equipment.
The cameras proved their worth quickly, too.
“We phased in the cameras in shifts over three days, and it was a four-hour training so we could learn everything about the equipment,” Croft reported. “After that, we got our cameras and they deployed from the office and the first call was a violent domestic situation. It was a strangulation case, and the female had to fight off her attacker and then she shot him with a pepperball gun.
“Kudos to her for being prepared to protect herself and not dying in this situation,” the sheriff said. “When our deputies arrived, he was tearing up her property, and then he took a swing at the deputy. With the cameras recording, the male was taken in custody and thanks to the cameras, he can’t claim that our deputy did anything wrong.”
A common police report includes space for an individual’s critical information and also for a narrative that is completely by the responding deputy, and while the LEO does their best to describe situations, the displays offered by the body cameras consistently offer better definition.
Sheriff Croft explains it this way.
“Before the cameras, we would put in our reports that a victim had a red neck from the altercation, but to watch the incident in real-time is something completely different. You can see the red neck, sure, but pretty often you can also see how a victim got the red neck,” the sheriff explained. “What better evidence could you have than the video recording?
“And as for taking a swing at the deputy, there’s no way he can say that our deputies had him down and were kicking him because it’s now all recorded. If they didn’t have the body cameras, though, telling lies like that would still be a possibility,” Croft added. “I know our deputies do the job the way they’re supposed to protect and serve the people of Ohio County, so that’s why it’s easy for me to say that the body cameras are working out well for our department.”
