ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office made its case to county lawmakers on Wednesday, Sept. 20, to approve a budget including money for new body camera technology.

The topic is now very relevant after the deadly shooting by a Deputy of two teenage burglary suspects on Sept. 6, an incident with no body camera footage as the Deputy did not turn it on before the shooting.

Matthew Fischer, Chief Police Deputy for the Sheriff’s Office, explained the OSCO’s intention to buy more body camera equipment that turns on automatically when a gun or taser is removed from a holster. It can also activate other body cameras within a certain radius.

Fischer said the Sheriff’s Office has two contracts. One is the County Executive’s contract which provides the OCSO with body cameras and fleet cameras, and the other contract deals with tasers. The Sheriff’s Office feels there are areas where their equipment can be improved.

“We started looking at our equipment, evaluating everything back in February,” Fischer said. “We are realizing things that we feel are shortcomings, things we want to make more robust, and things we actually want to upgrade.”

Fischer says the next steps are to get the contract proposal and get it approved so they can get all the equipment as soon as possible.