Virginia Beach sheriffs will soon wear body cameras. But first, they need your input.

VIRGINIA BEACH — Sheriff’s deputies who will be assisting police at the Something in the Water festival next week will be donning body-worn cameras, a new step in the city’s goal to bring more transparency to law enforcement efforts.

But first the Sheriff’s Office needs to adopt a policy on how the cameras will be used and how the footage will be managed, stored and retrieved.

Virginia law requires that law enforcement agencies establish a body-worn camera policy before deploying the cameras and make the policy available for public comment and review.

The draft of the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office body-worn camera policy is posted on vbso.net. Scroll to the bottom of the home page to find it. Comments can be submitted by email to webmaster@vbso.net and will be collected until 5 p.m. Monday.

Sheriff Ken Stolle requested cameras last month for all of his staff members who provide law enforcement services in support of the police department and for those who issue summonses, warrants and evictions. Eventually, he also wants cameras for deputies who work at the city jail and court buildings.

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The Sheriff’s Office has 441 sworn law enforcement personnel. The City Council approved $640,000 for the first round of 220 cameras in March.

Deputies will turn on their cameras at the beginning of each shift and keep them on, except in certain instances, including during strip searches, according to the 10-page draft policy.

All videos will contain tracking software to indicate who has viewed the footage and if the data was edited.

The policy also states that recordings will be made publicly available with “the approval of the Sheriff or designee and in compliance with State and Federal dissemination laws, privacy protection, and other applicable laws, including the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.”

The police department has been using Axon body-worn cameras since 2021. The Sheriff’s Office will have the same equipment package that police use, which includes tasers. A separate policy will be developed at a later date prior to deploying the tasers, according to a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.

Money for the additional 280 cameras requested by the sheriff could be approved by the City Council in the upcoming budget next month.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com