Rusk County Sheriff gets approval for body camera bids

HENDERSON, Texas (KLTV) - Rusk County Sheriff Johnwayne Valdez received approval to seek bids for software and body cameras at Thursday’s commissioners court meeting.

He says the systems they currently have in place were not maintained well and unable to be updated. The sheriff’s office currently has five body cameras sitting on a shelf because they’re not usable, preventing the deputies from doing their jobs.

Valdez says body camera are essential for the courts and public to be able to see what transpired in situations, as a form of accountability and trust. The software includes CAD, which is dispatch, RMS, which is a reporting management system, and JMS, which is a jail management system.

Valdez says two systems are being used, making it very inefficient. He says the new system will make it completely integrated, where one system works across the board from dispatch when a call is entered to the time they go to jail.