Hernando County Deputies, School Resource Officers to Wear Body Cameras

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office announced a countywide body-worn camera rollout on March 10 that will equip every sworn deputy in the agency, including all school resource officers stationed at Hernando County schools. Sheriff Al Nienhuis said funding approval came several months ago, and SROs are expected to have their devices by the end of March.

Nienhuis said the same activation policies that govern patrol deputies will apply uniformly to SROs. The cameras will remain in "ready mode" throughout the school day but will not continuously save recordings. Deputies are expected to begin recording when a situation warrants it, not during routine hallway interactions.

"If they're walking down the hallway and a student wants to give them a high five or something like that, that is typically not being recorded," Nienhuis said, "but if they're standing in the bus line at the end of the day and a parent comes up with an angry look on her face like they're going to give them a piece of their mind, or they're going to report some sort of crime or something, then obviously, at that point the deputy's going to turn it on and start recording that interaction."

Hernando's move puts it alongside a small number of area school districts where SROs wear cameras. Pasco County Schools confirmed its SROs wear body cameras, and Manatee County Schools said SROs from the Manatee County Sheriff's Office are similarly equipped. Most other districts in the region said their SROs do not wear cameras, though those schools do have surveillance cameras installed at various campus locations and on school buses.

The rollout leaves several policy details still to be publicly clarified, including the number of deputies and SROs receiving devices, the camera vendor, the total cost, how long recordings will be retained, and what privacy protections will govern footage captured in school settings involving minors.