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Placer County Sheriff, community group want more transparency with body cameras

The leader of Allies for Black Lives Placer County said body cameras could help hold officers accountable and are needed.

AUBURN, Calif. — In 2022, nearly 300 deputies for the Placer County Sheriff's Office should be trained and equipped with body cameras.

The move comes after the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved $4.8 million to fund the program, a first for the department. Sheriff's Office spokesperson Angela Musallam said the department sees body cameras as necessary for all deputies and officers in the department. She added that the department has looked at the Motorola V300 body camera as the model they would like to have.

"Everybody from the sheriff on down to the deputies and the correctional officers will be wearing a body-worn camera once this program is implemented," Musallam said.

Placer County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post Sheriff Devon Bell wanted body cameras since 2017 when he started.

“These body-worn cameras will serve as a tool to emphasize the hard work of our deputies and correctional officers, and provide another method of transparency to our community,” Bell said.

Damion Saunders, leader of Allies for Black Lives Placer County, said body cameras are worth the investment to prove how encounters with the police actually occur and not just how they're written in the police report.

"I have heard of instances, and me personally, I know I've been pulled over at gunpoint before by the police up there," Saunders said.

Saunders explained he was pulled over in 2015 by a law enforcement officer in an unmarked vehicle near Taylor Road in Roseville.

"He had the gun out of his holster and had me on the ground had me out of the car on the ground, while he ran, while he ran the plates," Saunders said.

At the time, Saunders had recently purchased the car and was on his way home from work, when he was pulled over because the officer thought his car was suspicious. Saunders could not say if it was the Placer County Sheriff's Office that pulled him over. Musallam added that California Highway Patrol, Roseville police or Placer County Sheriff's deputies could have conducted a traffic stop in the area where Saunders said the incident occurred.

Saunders said he hopes that more body cameras on Placer County law enforcement will lead to more transparency and accountability.

"Well, we've been saying, like as black people for years, like you know how police are treating people, but we've never had it documented anywhere now with you know, cell phone footage, body cams, it's like, okay, we see what's going on, like, you know, it's not like we just making these stories up," Saunders said.

Musallam added that regardless of there is video or not, deputies and officers under the Placer County Sheriff's Office will be held accountable if they do not follow the department's policy or the law.

"If you violate our policy, if you violate the law, you will be held accountable; Transparency and honesty and integrity are very important to Sheriff Bell," Musallam said.

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