The Canadian County Sheriff’s Office has announced they are the recipient of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s “Safe Oklahoma Grant” for 2024 in the amount of $56,735.00.  The grant monies will fund the cost of outfitting uniformed Sheriff’s Deputies with Body-Worn Cameras.  The Sheriff’s Office filed for the grant earlier this year, and this is the second year in a row the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office as received the award.
The Sheriff’s Office began reviewing body cameras several years ago, and talked to a number of vendors, and even had some in person demonstrations from vendors.  Sheriff West narrowed it down to the desired manufacturer, purchased and put into use eight (08) body-cameras in the Narcotics and Civil Divisions of the sheriff’s office.  The Attorney General’s grant will cover the cost of the additional cameras for the rest of the deputies (approximately 50), and the sheriff’s office budget will pick up the cost of the Cloud data-storage.  
“While this project has been a priority for me for several years, I wanted to run a pilot program with a few cameras first, and then see if we could procure a grant to help pick up some of the costs, freeing up the cost burden to the citizens of our county,” said Chris West, Canadian County Sheriff.  
The body worn cameras will augment the move to the electronic filing of criminal charges and cases presented to the District Attorney’s office.  They have already proven their worth in assisting the Sheriff’s Office in documenting arrests, complaint investigations and officer safety issues; especially during high risk situations law enforcement officers experience.
“It’s been my experience that anytime you can have an audio/video account of the situations law enforcement officers encounter, it greatly assists in not only the criminal arrest aspects of our jobs, but also greatly assists in maintaining officer safety and overall accountability.  In 2023, the Sheriff’s Office was awarded the same grant from the Attorney General’s Office in the amount of $62,355.00 and we were able to replace our outdated Motorola hand-held radios,” said West.
The Safe Oklahoma Grants are very beneficial to increasing the efficiency and safety of the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office and ultimately increasing the safety of the citizens of Canadian County. The Sheriff’s Office will begin implementation of the grant in January 2024, and anticipates having it fully in place by March 2024.
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PHOTO:
Deputy Sheriff Renee Kendrick, of the Sheriff's Civil Division points to the video screen mounted inside a sheriff’s cruiser, with a red arrow pointing to her body-worn camera attached to her duty belt.
AUTHORITY:
Chris West, Sheriff 
Canadian County, OK