Since the Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T Act was signed into law in February of 2021, pieces of the legislation have continued to be discussed in its’ assistance to law enforcement and public safety. A part of the Safe-T Act was body cameras to be worn for all law enforcement agencies, which Knox County Sheriff Jack Harlan says he is in great support of:
“I am a big proponent of body cameras because why be afraid of recording something if you are not doing anything wrong. When it implemented, we used them on the road and then we also implemented them within our jail. That really helped with our lawsuits as well. Not only do we have CCTV throughout the facility, but when our jail staff is doing cell checks, talking to inmates, they have body cameras on as well, so that way the inmate can’t say ‘deputy so and so did this,’ well let’s look at the body camera footage. That has been phenomenal. Also, we have had public complaints of so and so did this, well let’s look at it. Body cameras, I think that is a good piece of legislation that passed.”
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is currently fully staffed with 88 employees.
