Local

King County Sheriff's deputies to wear body cameras within a year

As the Seattle Police Department launches body cameras on some of its officers to wear body cameras Saturday, another very large local agency tells KIRO 7 it won't be far behind.

King County Sheriff John Urquhart said Friday that he would like to see his deputies wearing body cameras within “a year, maybe less.”

“I think the time to be cautious is over,” Urquhart told KIRO 7.

“Certainly our latest shooting brought that to the forefront.”

The sheriff was referring to the death of Tommy Le, who was shot and killed by a King County Sheriff's deputy in Burien last month.

Initial reports indicated the 19-year-old had a knife.

However, when Le was shot after allegedly lunging at deputies, it turned out that the recent high school graduate was holding a pen, not a weapon.

Urquhart wishes his deputies had been wearing body cameras that June day.

“The community would be so much more satisfied if there was body camera video about exactly what happened, as would we,” he said.

“I think my officers will behave better with a body camera.

I think the public will behave better when they’re on camera.

And if nothing else, I think it will level the playing field because the tie always goes to the police officer.”

“The public should want these” body cameras, Urquhart said.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said he, too, would like to see county deputies wearing body cameras as soon as possible -- to protect the public and police.

However, Constantine acknowledges barriers that need to be addressed first.

“We need to work with the legislature on both funding and on the way in which we can collect and store all this information within the meaning of the public disclosure laws,” Constantine told KIRO 7 on Friday, “and we need to work with our police officers to make sure we can implement this in quick action.”

KIRO 7 attempted to get comment from the King County Police Officers Guild regarding the potential change to its members’ work environment, but received no immediate response.

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