VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A new bill has cleared its first hurdle in the Florida Senate, setting clear guidelines for counties and cities to equip code enforcement officers with body cameras.
The issue has been a hot topic in Volusia County. Two years ago, the county tried to make body cameras mandatory but faced legal challenges. They then asked the state to step in with legislation to address the problem.
Currently, code enforcement officers aren’t considered police, so they can’t record people without consent under existing rules.
SB 504, if passed, would change that.
“Because the body cam is worn by the officer, people would be on notice that recording could be happening,” said Rep. Bill Partington, who sponsors the accompanying House bill.
“It protects the code enforcement officers and it also protects the rights of the residents who may be involved in the investigations,” Partington added.
Florida currently has no law banning code enforcement officers from wearing body cameras, but the lack of clear guidelines has held places like Volusia back from using them.
The bill aims to establish clear rules on how to wear the cameras, record footage, store videos, and handle public records requests.
“It lines up very similarly to the current rules that are used for police body cam videos,” Partington said.
The bill would not make body cameras mandatory for cities or counties.
“Certainly, the retention of body camera video is a very expensive proposition, so there’s many smaller cities that would never use this just because they couldn’t afford the cost on an annual basis for that,” Partington explained.
There is no official data tracking crimes against code enforcement officers, but several incidents have been reported across Florida in the past year.
Volusia County has seen such incidents as well.
In 2022, a man in Daytona Beach was arrested after threatening to beat a code enforcement officer to death with a tablet the officer was using to document property violations.
Daytona Beach began requiring body cameras for code enforcement officers in 2019. Currently, these officers can record in public spaces like sidewalks, but they need permission to record on private property under existing law.
The bill is now heading to its second reading on the Florida Senate floor.