RSCO to get K-9, cameras
Jul. 2—Rogers County Sheriff's Office has taken a step forward in adding new features to the department: another K-9 and body/car cameras.
Adopt a K-9 donated $7,500 to RCSO for the purchase of another K-9. Undersheriff Jon Sappington said this will be the department's fourth dog.
Sappington said they saw two opportunities to get another K-9.
"One was to put a K-9 on a shift that doesn't have any K-9's on it," he said. "And the other one was to be able to invest in officers that have that drive and have that interest with really without costing the county any money in the process."
Sappington said there were several requests from interested officers and they are finalizing and completing interviews.
Sappington said they purchase the dogs from a vendor in Tennessee. The vendor looks for dogs with a high drive, he said.
"[The vendor] trains them for about six months before they bring the handler in to start that transition," Sappington said. "And then once selected, he'll have to attend several weeks down in Tennessee for handler training."
Costs for a K-9 range from $9,000-12,000 for the dog, around $4,000 to outfit the patrol vehicle and then ongoing costs for vet care, dog food and training.
"Fortunately, for us, we were already in the middle of upgrading one of our K-9 vehicles," he said. "So we're just gonna repurpose one of our older ones."
Also in the works is the purchase of 60-70 body cameras and 26 cameras for patrol cars.
RCSO was awarded the Supporting Small, Rural, and Tribal Enforcement Agency Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program from the Bureau of Justice Affairs in the amount of $59,585. Sappington said this is a 50 percent matching grant. RSCO will then match the $59,585.
Sappington said the cameras will impact the sheriff's office in several ways.
"I think what we're most excited for is just through for training opportunities, as far as being able to review calls and incidents that are, you know, would normally not be seen or not be noticed and being able to have dialogue and discussions to better improve the function of the office," he said.
Sappington said they received different cameras from four vendors and are demoing the unit to make sure it meets all the expectations. Sappington said they are looking at Gtech.
"As long as that all goes well, and it does what it's supposed to, that's probably going to be where we go from there," he said.
Sappington said the main challenge with the body cams have been long-term data storage.
"Always, that's always been the obstacle that we've kind of fought against," he said. "We've had a chance since then, to kind of generate some revenue and have some opportunities available to us as far as for long-term storage. We're hopefully we're, we believe we're in the position now to kind of implement that."
