Maryland law requires all police agencies to wear body cameras by 2025.
Frederick, Md. (NS) – Society wants Police to wear body cameras because they do not trust them. That’s according to Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins who joined WFMD’s Morning News Express on Thursday.
“At the end of the day, I think the body cameras are going to go a long way in supporting police because it’s going to show that in 99.99% of the times, on these events that have bad outcomes, the police have probably made the right decision. They were forced, whatever level of force they used was probably necessary, probably reasonable,” said Jenkins.
He said progressive politicians who want to catch bad acting police will not get the results they are looking for.
Although Jenkins has not supported body cameras in the past, the department is still getting them.
“Listen, we’re going to have body cameras. We’re actually in the middle of a program right now to test different body camera systems, look at software. I want to make the right decision when I spend several million dollars on a program I want to make sure I get it right,” Jenkins explained.
According to state law, every police agency must be equipped with body cameras by 2025.
Transgender Arrests
When asked what the department would do if they had to place someone who is transgender in jail, Jenkins said special accommodations would have to be made.
“Thank goodness we haven’t run into that yet. That’s going to be a real point of controversy. We’re going to have to find a way to segregate that inmate from both populations,” said Jenkins.
Show host Ryan Hedrick asked if they “will have to bend over to the demands of the community?”
“We’re going to have to create special accommodations. I would suspect we would yes,” Jenkins replied.
He added that, as far as he knew, the Sheriff’s Office has not ever arrested someone who is transgender.
Illegal Immigration
Sheriff Jenkins said we’re not seeing the effects of illegal immigration yet in Frederick County.
“The entire flow of Heroin and Fentanyl coming across this border is already here. Our largest investigations take us to the southern border. Our quantities and seizures we investigate and then we follow the tracks right back to the souther border. So that’s already here,” he explained.
He said in time, the people will arrive.
“Where this flow of the entire population coming across the border is going to land, who knows? I can tell you this, as recent as a year ago, I was told by officials from ICE, that Maryland, the state of Maryland is the #3 destination of everybody coming across that border,” Jenkins said.
So far in 2022, over a million illegal immigrants have been encountered by law enforcement at the souther border.